There are handles and then there are Shehbaz shakes.
If a psychologist analyzed the Prime Minister’s body language in videos and photos of his meeting with President Donald Trump, he would tell you that his stiffness, constant agitation and longer normal handles indicate tension and anxiety. And yet, Pakistan is at a geopolitical summit that we have not seen for a long time.
Shehbaz and the Chief of Staff of Marshal (COAS) Asim Munnir meet the American president Donald Trump in the White House in Washington DC on September 25, 2025. Photo gracious of the PMO.
Trump described Prime Minister Shehbaz as a “formidable guy”, which concerns the greatest compliment you may receive from such a head of state.
The meeting at the oval office was behind closed doors, so we cannot say if the hugs worked their magic.
For each Saudi official of Shehbaz greeted, his hugs were more annoying than the previous one. But he obtained a defense agreement to us.
The videos and compilations of the SCO Summit flooded X, where people have published humorous comments on the duration and closure of the Prime Minister’s hugs. But here again, these embraces came because it signed protocolf after the memorandum of understanding with different countries, clearly indicating that the charming offensive works.
FM Ishaq Dar and Chinese FM Wang Yi in Islamabad Photo: FO X Account
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar has also taken this new school of diplomacy with all heart. No one was spared the “hand sandwich”. When Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi went down the red carpet, Dar was waiting with a breath and nervous fingers.
And then, with a shock or astonishment, everyone looked at the magic of the sandwich in hand Shehbaz-Shake get to work: after a period of five years, the CPEC 2.0 was officially announced.
FM Ishaq Dar with Eygptian FM Badr Abdeatty Photo: X
Shehbaz held a bilateral meeting with the chief advisor of Professor Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the 80th session of the Unga. September 25, 2025 Photo: PMO X account
Maybe the key to diplomacy is not the formality, it is simply a ‘Jaadu ki jhappi‘.
