Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on February 19, with discussions focusing on cooperation in critical minerals, energy, counter-terrorism and the potential for increased American investment, according to a statement from the State Department, Dawn reports.

Earlier in the day, the Pakistani leader had been invited to address the inaugural session of a Gaza peace forum led by President Donald Trump.

The State Department said Rubio later thanked Pakistan for backing Trump’s Gaza peace plan and for participating as a founding member in the first meeting of the Board of Peace. He also conveyed condolences over the January 31 attacks in Balochistan and the lives lost in the February 3 bombing in Islamabad.

The meeting also covered Pakistan’s role in the recent Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington in which the US welcomed Islamabad’s engagement and discussed collaboration in developing Pakistan’s energy and mineral resources, alongside potential future commercial opportunities for American companies.

Addressing the first meeting of the Board of Peace, Sharif stressed the need to end ceasefire violations in Gaza, describing this as essential to securing durable peace in the conflict-hit territory. He went on to say that the Palestinian people had endured prolonged occupation and hardship, and argued that lasting peace required an end to violations in order to preserve life and advance reconstruction. He added that Palestinians must be given control over their land and future in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

The Pakistani PM then praised the US president’s efforts in bringing together the Board of Peace saying that sustained support would help deliver lasting peace in Gaza while defining his legacy.

In his remarks, Sharif also credited Trump with helping to defuse the four-day Pakistan-India crisis in May 2025, claiming that his intervention had potentially prevented the loss of tens of millions of lives in the region; a claim Trump himself was eager to put forward at the time.