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NEW YORK:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met US President Joe Biden on Thursday at a reception for world leaders participating in the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
PM Shehbaz along with other world leaders were invited to the reception by the US president.
This is the first interaction between Biden and the Pakistani prime minister. Since being elected as the US president, Biden has not spoken to either former Prime Minister Imran Khan or his successor Shehbaz Sharif.
The meeting despite being informal is significant given the fact that the Biden administration during Imran’s government largely ignored Pakistan.
However, since the change of government, there has been a flurry of engagements between the two countries.
Read: Flood catastrophe: Shehbaz thanks Biden for his call for global response action
Earlier, in his address to the UN General Assembly, Biden made a fervent pitch for extending help to Pakistan where floods had caused huge devastation.
In his address, Biden announced over $2.9 billion in new assistance to address global food insecurity, building on the $6.9 billion in US government assistance to support global food security already committed this year.
Earlier this month, a senior adviser of the US Secretary of State visited Pakistan and the Biden administration also approved the $450 million sale of F-16 equipment to Pakistan.