Even for most Pakistani analysts, President Donald Trump’s unprecedented meeting with their country’s top military boss, Field Marshal Asim Munir, came as a surprise.

The meeting held over lunch was sort of a diplomatic coup that Pakistan managed to pull off for the first time - a US president hosted a military leader who was not the head of the state or the government.

“The meeting remains significant and symbolic in more than one way,” says Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former senior diplomat, who served as ambassador to both the United States and China.

“It heralds the resumption of diplomatic engagement between the two countries at the highest level for the first time since 2019”, when Trump, during his first term, met the then Pakistani premier Imran Khan.

And indeed, the optics of the Trump and Munir’s meeting are unusual because no US president, and for that matter any president, would formally receive an army chief of another country, denting the protocol.

In the past, the US presidents directly engaged with only those Pakistani army chiefs who also headed the government, from President Field Marshal Ayub Khan (1958-1969) to President General Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008).

Pakistan has a long history of direct military rule. But even under democratic governments, the military enjoys a key role in running the country, especially managing its external and internal security as well as foreign relations. The reason: It is the strongest and most organised institution compared to many of the weak and non-performing civil institutions.

Masood Khan said that the Trump-Munir meeting did not happen out of the blue. In Trump’s second presidency, there were already signs of a thaw compared to the frosty period in the US-Pakistan relations under the former president Joe Biden, he said.

In February 2025, the second Trump administration released $397 million for Pakistan’s F-16 sustenance programme, paving the way for further closer engagement.

The very next month, President Trump disclosed during his address to Congress that Pakistan helped in the arrest of an Afghan national, accused of planning the deadly August 26, 2021, bombing at Kabul airport that killed nearly 200 people, including 13 American soldiers.

Mushahid Hussain Syed, a former information minister, who now heads a think tank – Pakistan-China Institute (PCI) – says that the Pakistan-India short conflict in May also elevated Islamabad and its military leadership’s position.

“Trump likes winners… he must have noticed how a small country of 250 million people like Pakistan stood boldly against India, which has a billion-plus population.”

“Since then, President Trump has started equating Pakistan and India together… This has not gone down well in New Delhi. The Indian reaction shows their anguish.”

Masood Khan said that following the May conflict, the posture and behaviour of Pakistan and India were starkly different. “Pakistan thanked the US president for facilitating the ceasefire, but India refuses to acknowledge this role.”

Ahead of his meeting with Field Marshal Munir, Trump told reporters that he stopped the Pakistan-India war. “I love Pakistan. I think Modi is a fantastic man… I stopped the war between Pakistan and India. This man (Asim Munir) was extremely influential in stopping it from the Pakistan side…," Trump said.

However, Trump’s repeated assertion of his role in stopping an all-out war between the two South Asian nuclear rivals is being challenged by New Delhi.

On June 18, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear to Trump during a telephone call that a ceasefire between India and Pakistan was achieved not through US mediation but talks between the two militaries.

India’s mainstream media, overwhelmingly seen as close to Modi’s hardline Hindu nationalist government, has launched anti-Trump propaganda since he has started taking credit for brokering the Pakistan-India ceasefire. And this media campaign has peaked into a frenzy following Trump’s meeting with Pakistan’s military leader.

In a stark contrast, Islamabad formally nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ensuring the ceasefire.

Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a retired Pakistani general who also served as defence minister, said that even before the conflict, the Indian media was targeting Munir.

“After the conflict and his elevation to the coveted post of field marshal, the Indian media are more perturbed. Now the June 18th meeting has further fueled anti-Trump sentiment.”

He, however, said that India’s “strategic community” is not worried. “It’s only the hardline Hindu politicians and their affiliated media who are overreacting. The US and India remain strategic partners.”

Indian frustration is understandable. India was trying to isolate Pakistan, paint it as a state sponsoring terrorism, and demonise its military leadership, especially Asim Munir.

Mushahid Hussain Syed said that the Indian propaganda has come to nought. “The world is not buying their narrative, including New Delhi’s allegations that the Pahalgam attack on tourists (in Indian-administered Kashmir) was sponsored by Pakistan.”

Pakistan continues to enjoy relations with global and regional powers – from China and Russia to the United States, as well as with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye.

In a huge blow to India, earlier this month, Pakistan was elected as the vice-chair of the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee and chair of the UNSC’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee.

The May conflict also brought the Kashmir issue into the international limelight with President Trump re-hyphenating Pakistan and India together, to the much dismay of New Delhi.

In recent years, India has been trying to portray itself as a dominant regional and rising global power. But the May conflict exposed its limits in dealing with Pakistan, which says it shot down multiple Indian jets, including French-made Rafales.

India, which aims to act as a counterweight to China, could not even dominate Pakistan, which spends at least eight times less on defence compared to New Delhi.

Islamabad already has an Indian spy, Kulbhuhsan Jadhav, in custody, who was arrested in Balochistan in 2016 on the charges of espionage and operating a terrorist network. India denies the charge and says that Jadhav, a retired Naval officer-turned-businessman, is innocent.

However, the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada and a similar failed bid on another Sikh leader in the United States are being quoted internationally as an example of Indian state institutions’ involvement in acts of terror abroad – charges denied by New Delhi.

The Trump-Munir meeting, held against the backdrop of the Israel-Iran conflict, was also closely watched because Pakistan enjoys good relations with Tehran and supports its right to defend itself.

However, Pakistan says that it offers only moral and diplomatic support to Iran and rejects speculations about any military or logistics support to Tehran.

Pakistani security officials say that the timing of the meeting underscores the growing trust and importance being placed on its military leadership as a key partner in regional and global stability.

According to Trump, Pakistani military leaders know Iran better than others.

“…It's not that they're bad with Israel. They know them both, actually, but they know Iran better. He (Munir) agreed with me.”

Masood Khan said that during the Biden period, the common expression was that the US and Pakistan have low bandwidth relations.

“But under Trump, the relationship has been broadened. After a long time, Pakistan got an opportunity to discuss a full-spectrum agenda with the US leadership.”

Pakistani sources say that the Trump-Munir meeting discussed avenues for expanding bilateral cooperation in multiple domains, including trade, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy and cryptocurrency.

Masood Khan said that Pakistan needs US help in counterterrorism efforts. “The US forces left behind a big cache of weapons amounting to $7.5 billion when they withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Though the Afghan Taliban got hold of many of these weapons, a big chunk found its way to the black market. They are now being used by terrorist groups, including the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan).”

TTP, a designated terrorist group, has carried out deadly attacks across Pakistan.

While Pakistan is expanding relations with Washington, background interviews show that it is not being done at China’s expense.

For Masood Khan, China’s policies are long-term, and Pakistan’s closeness to Washington does not bother it. “Beijing wants peace with the US and has historically supported good US-Pakistan relations.

However, Lodhi said that Pakistan must ensure that its relations with Washington do not undermine its closest ally, China.

“We have to be careful and keep our interest in the forefront. There should be no agreement with Washington, which hurts our relations with China. It’s a big no.”