KARACHI: As Pakistan and Afghanistan try to settle their issues in Istanbul, US President Donald Trump has said that he would get the conflict between the two neighbours “solved very quickly”, Dawn.com reported.

Addressing the border dispute on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Trump referred to it as “one of eight wars that my administration has ended in just eight months”.

“We’re averaging one a month. There’s only one left,” he said. “Although I heard that Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up, but I’ll get that solved very quickly,” he added.

“I know them both … the Pakistan field marshal and the prime minister are great people, and I know we’re gonna get that done quickly. That one started up a few days ago.”

Rubio says stronger strategic ties with Pakistan won’t come at India’s expense

Referring to his own role in halting wars around the world, the US president said: “I just feel it’s something I can do. I do it nicely.”

He added: “I don’t need to do it, I guess. But if I can take time and save millions of lives, that’s really a great thing. I can’t think of anything better to do.”

Mr Trump had previously thanked both PM Shehbaz and “my favourite” COAS Munir for their efforts in securing the ceasefire deal in Gaza. Meanwhile, PM Shehbaz had praised Mr Trump’s “exemplary [and] visionary leadership” and reconfirmed Pakistan’s plan to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize 2026.

Strategic ties

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US sees an opportunity to expand its strategic relationship with Pakistan, and that the recent strengthening of ties between the two countries does not come at the expense of Washington’s relationship with New Delhi.

He made these remarks during a press briefing on Saturday, during which he was asked whether India had raised any concerns about the “stronger relationship” between the US and Pakistan.

“They really haven’t — I mean, we know they’re concerned for obvious reasons because of the tensions that have existed between Pakistan and India historically. But, I think they have to understand, we have to have relations with a lot of different countries,” he said, according to a transcript of the briefing on the State Department’s website.

He continued, “We see an opportunity to expand our strategic relationship with Pakistan, and I think we’ve made — that’s our job, is to try to figure out how many countries we can find how we can work with on things of common interest.

“So, I think the Indians are very mature when it comes to diplomacy and things of that nature. Look, they have some relationships with countries that we don’t have relationships with. So, it’s part of a mature, pragmatic foreign policy. I don’t think anything we’re doing with Pakistan comes at the expense of our relationship or friendship with India, which is deep, historic, and important.”

He then went on to say that “anytime you work with someone, you get to know them and you interact with them, and so I do think there was some sense of happiness about it... We think there are things we can work together with them on”.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2025