Pakistan

Islamabad, September 25, 2026. The Pakistani press followed the Trump-Xi summit in Washington from the angle of markets and trade rather than protocol staging. According to Business Recorder, the Thursday, September 24, summit at the White House was "heavy on symbolism but produced no apparent breakthroughs" on trade, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, and Iran.

The central fact retained by Pakistani headlines is the extension of the trade truce: according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, cited by Daily Times and ARY News, the agreement between Washington and Beijing pushes back the November 10 deadline to January 10, 2027, an extension deemed "shorter than markets expected". The fundamental disagreements remain intact: export controls on rare earths and chips, American support for Taiwan, China's ties with Iran.

The Express Tribune emphasizes that Xi Jinping, who arrived on Wednesday, September 23, at Joint Base Andrews for his first state visit to Washington in over a decade, called on the two countries to be "partners, not rivals" because the interests of their two peoples "are deeply intertwined". Trump welcomed him in person on the tarmac, a first in eleven years according to C-SPAN.

But Business Recorder notes that the markets did not follow the protocol enthusiasm: the yuan slipped against the dollar on Thursday, the Hong Kong and mainland China stock exchanges fell back, investors remaining "skeptical that a meeting ... would produce a broader breakthrough". Wall Street also gave up ground, tech stocks like Nvidia and Broadcom falling by more than 1%, in an already tense climate due to the rise in oil prices linked to Iran.

Another notable absence reported by Business Recorder, citing Reuters: Beijing had wanted to bring a delegation of Chinese businessmen, who ultimately stayed behind, while the state dinner brought together Tim Cook (Apple), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), and Sam Altman (OpenAI), according to Daily Times.

Geo News finally reports that Xi called for regular military dialogue with Washington to "prevent crisis", while Xinhua, cited by Business Recorder, indicates that Xi assured Trump of China's support for the return of the United States and Iran to the June agreement intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.