Donald Trump’s ‘good friend’ Asim Munir meets ‘iron brother’ Xi Jinping

Less than a month after he met US President Donald Trump, Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir met Chinese President Xi Jinping along with his prime minister Shehbaz Sharif in Beijing today, as part of the latter’s delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

This is General Munir’s first meeting with the Chinese President. He will attend a grand parade of the Chinese army to be held here tomorrow to commemorate the 80th anniversary of what the Chinese call their “People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression”, reported PTI.

The Chinese military is expected to display its most modern weapons, including aerial, ground, electronic and missile systems, at the military parade — Pakistan sources 80 per cent of its equipment from China, a demonstration of the “all weather relationship” between Islamabad and Beijing. Munir’s presence in Beijing is significant because as army chief he is the chief broker of the relationship not just with China — a fact that was manifest during Operation Sindoor when Pakistan used Chinese missiles, knowhow as well as strategic advice from their Chinese counterparts — but also because he is now seen as Pakistan's key interlocutor to the US President.

Old-timers wonder if an action replay is on the cards today — dating back to the time in the late 1960s when then Pakistani dictator Yahya Khan paved the way for Nixon’s key confidant Henry Kissinger to inaugurate a relationship with Beijing.

Clearly, Munir’s presence in Sharif’s delegation is confirmation that he is probably the most powerful man in Pakistan, leveraging Pakistan’s two most important relationships. He has twice met Trump since Op Sindoor, being feted at the White House over halal lunches, that too without the benign presence of his PM.

In Beijing, he has, however, accompanied Sharif to the SCO summit and the Chinese parade. Munir has been instrumental in the reversal of Trump’s affections in the subcontinent, promising Trump access to key mineral reserves in Balochistan as well as improved information and leverage over Afghan militants. Pakistan recently handed over to the US a key Afghan militant who has been accused of orchestrating an attack on US armed personnel in Kabul some years ago. Munir’s meeting with Xi is less surprising because Pakistan and China consider each other “blood brothers,” a tie that is often mutually described as “higher than the mountains and deeper than the seas.”

Xi has played his part in the consolidation of the China-Pakistan relationship, pointing out that as "global changes unseen in a century unfold at a quicker pace, a strong China-Pakistan relationship is conducive to safeguarding regional peace and development." The two sides should accelerate building an even closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, to bring more benefits to the two peoples and set up a model for the broader neighbourhood, Xi said.

According to Xinhua, Xi promised to expand and upgrade the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as well as the free trade agreement with Islamabad. In turn, he said, he hoped Pakistan would take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.