Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call on Saturday night, the Foreign Office (FO) said, adding that the two leaders reaffirmed the commitment to strengthen bilateral ties and discussed regional and international developments.

“Deputy Prime Minister/ Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar received a call tonight from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

“The two leaders expressed satisfaction over the positive trajectory of Pakistan-US ties and discussed recent regional and international developments. They reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations across multifaceted areas of cooperation,” the FO said.

The phone call between Dar and Rubio has taken place against the backdrop of improving Pakistan-US ties and amid significant developments in the Middle East.

Last month, it was noted in an analysis published by Dawn that the “positive signals” between Islamabad and Washington, “which began emanating soon after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, seem to be turning into full-blown bonhomie”.

From acknowledging Pakistan’s counter-terrorism cooperation in the arrest of an militant organisation IS-Khorasan’s operative to claiming credit for a ceasefire between Pakistan and India following their May conflict, Pakistan has perhaps featured more in incumbent US President Donald Trump’s “day-to-day media interactions than any past ‘commander-in-chief’”, it was observed in the analysis.

After the May escalation, Pakistan’s army chief also met President Trump at the White House. This was followed by a series of cabinet-level engagements, culminating in a breakthrough tariff agreement that set a uniform duty of 19 per cent on Pakistani exports to the US.

“After securing what seems to be a major discount in tariff negotiations, attracting US investor interest in its oil and mineral reserves and signalling that its currency market is receptive to digital assets and cryptocurrencies, Pakistan seems to be in the driving seat as far as South Asia is concerned,” the analysis said.

Earlier this month, Pakistan also signed a memorandum of understanding worth $500 million with an American metals company, the US Strategic Metals.

Saturday’s phone call between Dar and Rubio also took place before the latter left for a visit to Israel and the former to Qatar.

Recently, there has been a rift between Israel and Qatar, both of whom are US allies, following Tel Aviv’s strikes targeting the leaders of Palestinian group Hamas in Doha.

Israel’s action has drawn widespread international condemnation, and Dar reached Doha today to attend a ministerial meeting ahead of an emergency summit of Arab and Muslim leaders on the attack in Qatar’s capital.