By T N Ashok
NEW YORK: The Talk of the Town. Much chest thumping in Pakistan. Lots of analysis and hypotheses in Indian publications. The subject matter is of course the much-hyped Trump’s invite to Field Marshal Asim Munir, who is licking his wounds after the operation Sindoor, (GOK why he became field marshal), his trip to Washington DC to have the celebrated lunch with US President Donald Trump.
The luncheon meeting on Wednesday at the White House was a closed-door affair. No press. No briefing about it in the usual White House Press meet. All hush hush. The hush hush only led to speculation among fertile brains in the Indian and Western Media of what could have transpired between the two. Enough grist for TV channels to go to town about the luncheon meet. Guess work and so called analysis in the backdrop of the ongoing Israel Iran conflict.
Let’s break it down and see what the Munir Trump meet actually meant. The Western media was agog with reports that Munir had been called to harness his military experience on the border between Iran and Pakistan and if it could be trusted to lend its air bases to US combat aircraft to fly or refuel and bombing missions in Iran.
Especially when Iran flagged reports that Pakistan would nuke Israel if Iran were to attack Israel with nuclear weapons. Pakistan foreign minister Ishaq Dhar had gone on record to say that Pakistan would do no such thing. The nuclear weapons of Pakistan were for its defence against any foreign aggressor (India).
Yet the speculation went on. Military strategists claimed that could not have been the centrepiece of discussions between field marshal Munir and President Trump. Since Pakistan’s borders with Iran are on the eastern side and nuclear facilities of Iran are on the western side of its map, more easily accessible to Israel than Pakistan.
So done, theory one is done and dusted. Pakistan could not be called upon to launch an offensive or help US airplanes to take off from air bases in Pakistan. Too far out. Theory two. More credible. To incentivize Munir to unleash the Pakistan war machine propaganda that Operation Sindoor was a damp squib and that Rafale fighters made in France could not match up to the Chengdu made Chinese aircraft and fighters. Pakistan had done it once but was refuted by India and Dassault, the French company that makes Rafale.
The Pakistan propaganda helped the Middle East and Africa do a rethink on whether they should go for European military hardware for their defence needs. The US is the biggest armament manufacturer in the world and has been accused of financing and fuelling rebellions in far off countries to keep or feed its armament industry with billions of dollars. The US is in severe competition with West European, Chinese, Russian arms industries to sell its military hardware that comes at a price.
While predecessor Joe Biden was slow on this issue, Trump is more aggressive and wants US combat aircraft, military helicopters such as the Apache, Chinook and drone squads to be sold widely in the world including India, which has hitherto been depending on Russian military supplies, which has changed since the BJP government led By PM Modi came to power.
India bought the sea harriers from the UK, wants to buy more military hardware, source more Rafale jets, Scorpion class of submarines from France leading to a problem for the USA as also Russia, the main supplier over the years, whom India considers as selling outdated equipment.
An inflamed Pakistan propaganda on the Rafale would only stoke the fires of opposition which has been crying foul of the Rafale deal lining the pockets of certain favoured industrial groups which had set up companies to assemble the aircraft in India.
If this was the purpose, Trump could have invited the premier Shehbaz Sharif and done the deal. He did not. It’s obvious. Better done through the army as it carries more credibility and effectively controls power in Islamabad. The army is more powerful than politicians in Pakistan and they can bend them to their will.
Outwardly Nawaz Sharif, his brother Prime Minister Shehbaz, Imran Khan and Bilawal Bhutto, leaders of the various fractious political parties in Pakistan take it as a testament from the US as an endorsement for Pakistan’s alleged victory in Operation Sindoor. What they don’t realize is that they have all been ignored and are in great danger of being overthrown by the military which has been the norm for years in Pakistan.
It’s not the first time that a Pakistan army general has been invited for talks with a US President. President John F Kennedy invited the then army chief Ayub Khan. Nixon invited Zia Ul Haq and Obama invited Pervez Musharraf. But the fact of the matter is that they were all heads of their country politically. Wearing two hats. .
In Those days, the US cultivated Pakistan as a natural ally because under the centrist regime of the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi India leaned more towards the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia as its natural ally and trusted partner with whom it also signed a mutual defense treaty.
So now comes in the crypto currency angle , Trumps family company World Liberty Financial run by his two sons in which Munir has a stake for promoting it as hub in Pakistan for the Asian region. India would certainly have no part in this. Prime Minister Modi is no Chandrasekhar to allow planes to fly in from Diego Garcia and refuel in India for its West Asia mission then. And what’s in it for Field Marshal Munir in all of this.
Here it comes Trumps promotion of the meme coin of his family $1US. The bitcoin. The crypto currency angle. The role of World Liberty Financial, a crypto company promoted by the Trump’s sons inc. Eric and Don jr. They have already tied up with a Dubai based stock exchange MCX, a Chinese promoter, and Abu Dhabi based equity player in a $2 billion dollar venture.
Field Marshal Munir has an equity in this venture, much before Operation Sindoor was launched and his failure was rewarded with the post of a field marshal.
Trump had clearly said that he as president had no connections with WLF and that it was purely a family venture and yet he along with JD Vance, VP, went to Las Vegas for a promotional event on crypto currency hailing it as the future of the world and there is a Genius Act in the works in the Congress with so called built in safeguards to protect investors.
President Biden sought to prohibit crypto currency as it was considered unsafe with high risk for investors as advised by his treasury department. A section of Republicans and Democrats are opposing the Genius Act as not being safe for investors.
All that went out of the window once Trump took over as President. Many countries are treading cautiously into the world of crypto currency. India is thinking of launching its own Bitcoin through the reserve bank with enough built in safeguards as so as to tackle the underbelly of this newfound virtual currency with no government control or supervision and is increasingly used for terror finance by militant groups, mafia dons, and drug lords.
World Liberty Financial (WLF) is a crypto company founded in 2024 with close ties to Donald Trump and his family. According to reports, Trump’s family, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner hold a 60% stake in the company. The company’s website displays the phrase “Inspired by Donald J Trump”. The company is involved in a deal signed in Pakistan with the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) aimed at developing Pakistan into a crypto hub.
Field Marshal Asim Munir, the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, was involved in this deal. He personally welcomed the WLF delegation during the signing ceremony and had a closed-door meeting with them and the Pakistani Prime Minister, where the agreement was reportedly finalized. This direct involvement has raised concerns and speculation about potential national security implications and whether economic overtures from Trump-linked entities played a role in the Pakistan Army’s posture during a recent conflict. .Si Trump-Munir talks had also a big business angle. (IPA Service)
Israel-Iran War Will Have No Major Impact On Indian Economy In Short Term 