Pakistan\u2019s army strongman is in Washington on a trip intended to reinforce military and economic ties with the US even as his nuclear-armed south Asian nation draws closer to China.<\/p>\n
The five-day official visit by Asim Munir, who as chief of the army is Pakistan<\/a>\u2019s most powerful figure, was agreed despite efforts by India to isolate him following fierce military clashes between Islamabad and New Delhi last month. He is expected to have lunch with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The meeting highlights Islamabad\u2019s warming ties with Washington under Trump, who during his first term suspended military aid to Islamabad over its alleged support for terrorism in Afghanistan but this month praised Pakistan\u2019s \u201cvery, very strong leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n General Michael Kurilla, head of US Central Command, this month hailed what he called a \u201cphenomenal partnership\u201d with Munir\u2019s military in the fight against the Afghanistan-based radical Islamist group Isis-K<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump has thanked Pakistan for delivering a Isis-K member suspected of involvement in a bombing that killed 13 marines during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe US military still has an important counterterrorism partnership with Pakistan, even as India accuses Pakistan of being a terror sponsor,\u201d said Christopher Clary of the University at Albany in New York.<\/p>\n Munir\u2019s US visit, which began on Sunday and is his second since the former spymaster took over as military chief in 2022, showed \u201cthe relationship exists and is important to Washington\u201d, despite the fear of some in the US capital that Pakistan was already \u201cfirmly aligned with Beijing\u201d, Clary said.<\/p>\n Islamabad has done little to ease such concerns by pursuing new deals to acquire advanced weaponry and technology from China, already its main arms supplier.<\/p>\n In a post on social media site X on June 6, the Pakistan government said China had offered to sell it 40 fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighter jets, as well as new radar and air defence systems.<\/p>\n The X post was later deleted, but Asim Suleiman, a retired Pakistani air marshal who still receives briefings from the military, said a deal was in the works for the roughly three dozen aircraft \u201cto likely arrive in 2026\u201d.<\/p>\n China\u2019s ministry of defence did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n If delivered, the J-35s could be the first fifth-generation stealth fighters to be deployed in South Asia. India is developing an indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, but Walter Ladwig, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said it remained \u201cin prototype stage, with first flights not expected before 2026 at the earliest, and most likely 2028\u201d.<\/p>\n Pakistan said during May\u2019s clashes that it used less-advanced Chinese-made aircraft and air-to-air missiles to shoot down six Indian fighters<\/a>, a claimed feat later praised by Jiang Zaidong, China\u2019s ambassador in Islamabad, in a meeting with the chief of Pakistan\u2019s air force.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan became a showcase of not just Chinese equipment, but also the deepest defence relationship that exists between Beijing and any other country,\u201d said Andrew Small, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin and author of The China-Pakistan Axis<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a live display of what \u2018all-weather\u2019 friendship means: Chinese support in training, the integration of radars and satellites, intelligence-sharing, and the provision of export-ready equipment that could benefit other countries,\u201d Small said.<\/p>\n In the months leading up to Pakistan\u2019s May clashes with India, its ties with China had been tested by militant attacks against Chinese workers<\/a>, requests for relief over its mounting debts to Beijing and delays at projects such as a Chinese-funded port in the coastal city of Gwadar.<\/p>\n But Beijing wants Islamabad to be able to compete militarily with its larger and richer neighbour and arch-enemy.<\/p>\n \u201cChina would like to prevent Indian dominance of the South Asia region, especially given the US-India alignment,\u201d said Yun Sun, director of the east Asia programme at the Stimson Center in Washington.\u00a0\u201cIn Beijing\u2019s view, between India and Pakistan, parity brings stability and disparity brings instability.\u201d<\/p>\n Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US and UN, said Islamabad would seek to further improve ties with Washington, but not at the expense of its relationship with Beijing, also an important lender to the cash-strapped government.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no equivalence in Pakistan\u2019s relations with the US and China. Pakistan\u2019s strategic priority is its ties with China. That\u2019s because China meets both Pakistan\u2019s economic and defence needs,\u201d Lodhi said.<\/p>\n Islamabad has been ready to engage with other countries viewed with suspicion by Washington as it tries to secure its restive western border regions<\/a>. At Chinese-brokered talks in May, Pakistan and Afghan negotiators agreed to exchange ambassadors, collaborate on counterterrorism and extend the $60bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n Also in May, Munir discussed deepening defence ties with Mohammad Bagheri, then-chief of Iran\u2019s general staff who was killed<\/a> in Israel\u2019s June 13 attack, and Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F73a8b2fc-5b1f-494f-b48c-ae398108fa93.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1\")
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