THE meeting between Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sparked cautious optimism that Islamabad and Washington may finally be turning a corner in their often-fraught relationship. The two sides appear ready to recalibrate their economic and strategic ties after years of diplomatic chill and disengagement.

The meeting between the top diplomats of the two countries is being widely interpreted as a formal culmination of a discreet thaw in bilateral ties — set in motion by the lunch President Donald Trump recently hosted for Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House. It would not be wrong to say that Mr Trump’s gesture helped lay the groundwork for the resumption of high-level diplomatic momentum between the two........

© Dawn