PM Shehbaz attends reception hosted by US President Biden during UNGA session

US President Biden and PM Shehbaz Sharif met at a reception for UNGA participants, exchanging cordial greetings.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif attended a reception hosted by US President Joe Biden in honour of the heads of government participating in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.

During the event, Prime Minister Sharif met with President Biden, and both leaders exchanged good wishes for each other. The reception also saw the participation of heads of state from various countries.

The reception, held on the sidelines of the UNGA session, provided an opportunity for leaders to engage in informal discussions and strengthen diplomatic ties.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is among the world leaders attending the UNGA session who were been invited by President Biden to a reception in New York, a Foreign Office official while requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune last week.

The official said the prime minister, though will not have any bilateral meeting with Biden, will interact with the US president informally during the reception.

This was the first interaction between the US president and the Pakistani prime minister. Since being elected as the US president, Biden has not spoken to either former Prime Minister Imran Khan or his successor Shehbaz Sharif.

The meeting despite being informal will be significant given the fact that the Biden administration during Imran’s government largely ignored Pakistan.

But since the change of government, there has been a flurry of engagements between the two countries. A senior adviser of the US Secretary of State recently visited Pakistan while the Biden administration also approved the $450 million sale of F-16 equipment to Pakistan.

After the UNGA session, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will visit Washington on an official visit and meet Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

This will be his second meeting with the Secretary of State in a few months as he earlier met him in New York at the sidelines of the Food security summit.