Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said Pakistan-United States trade could double to $20 billion by 2031, addressing a visiting US congressional delegation and a high-level American business delegation, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Geo News).
The congressional delegation, comprising Representatives Ryan Zinke and Michael Baumgartner, called on Dar at the Foreign Office to discuss bilateral relations, trade opportunities and avenues for strengthening economic engagement, the statement said.
Dar invited American businesses to take advantage of what he described as Pakistan’s improving investment climate, and said Pakistan attached great importance to its longstanding strategic and economic partnership with the United States, with a commitment to expanding cooperation in trade, investment and emerging sectors.
The figures and characterisations are the ministry’s. No independent assessment of the $20 billion projection was offered, and the statement did not set out the sectoral composition that would deliver it.
The same congressional delegation met Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir this week for talks on regional security and economic cooperation, in which Munir made a similar argument that regional stability rests on economic growth, trade and connectivity.
The economic framing has been consistent across Pakistan’s recent engagements with Washington, with officials presenting investment access and minerals rather than security assistance as the substance of the relationship. It runs alongside Islamabad’s role, with Qatar, as a channel between Washington and Tehran.
