Image Source: Agencies

June 18, 2025: On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump will have a closed-door lunch at the White House with Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, a development that is being closely watched in Asia. India deftly avoided Trump’s last night’s invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to stop-over in the US on his way back from Canada.
On Wednesday morning, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri released a video that pre-empted any statement from Trump-Munir meet which could have shown the US as intervening in the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir.
Misri read out the contents of a telephone call Modi and Trump had last night and quoted Modi saying, “India has never accepted mediation, does not accept it, and will never accept it. There is complete political unanimity in India on the issue.”
The lunch meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday (approximately 10.30 p.m. IST), and no photographers are permitted. The timing of the Trump-Munir meeting holds significance as it is happening amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. Pakistan and Iran share a land border, which is important strategically for the United States, especially if Trump decides to get involved in the conflict directly. In the 1980s, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the US sent troops to fight the Taliban following the World Trade Center bombing, Islamabad had allowed the US to use its air bases. The Pak Army chief is also expected to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. The visit comes just a few weeks after a skirmish between India and Pakistan in which New Delhi accused Pakistan of working hand in hand with terrorist organizations.