WASHINGTON: The White House on Friday denied media reports claiming that US President Donald Trump is planning an official visit to Pakistan later in the year. Despite assertions made by parts of the Pakistani media, a senior White House official confirmed that “A trip to Pakistan has not been scheduled at this time.”
Earlier in the day, various Pakistani television stations published reports based on unnamed sources that President Trump would travel to Islamabad in September before traveling to India. The stations later withdrew their reports. Pakistan’s Foreign Office also stated it had no information about any such presidential visit. “We have no information about this matter,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told the media.
In dismissing reports concerning Pakistan, the White House announced President Trump’s scheduled foreign visits. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump will travel to Scotland from July 25 to July 29 to engage in trade negotiations with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “US President Donald Trump will travel to Scotland, where he will visit both Turnberry and Aberdeen from July 25 to July 29,” Leavitt said, adding that the President will refine the “great trade deal” between the US and the UK. Later this year, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will travel back to the United Kingdom for a second official state visit in a rare occurrence from September 17 to September 19, during which they will greet King Charles III at Windsor Castle.
The last US President to travel to Pakistan was George W. Bush, who took a historic visit to Islamabad in 2006. It has been since then that no incumbent US President has visited the South Asian nation. In the last month, President Trump received Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House, but no presidential visit to Pakistan was announced at that time. –Agencies
