THE memes leading up to the US-Iran talks in Pakistan this weekend were nearly as epic as the moment itself: Pakistanis depicted as a strutting John Travolta; our leaders recast as the heroes from Guardians of the Galaxy; Irani renditions of our national anthem, with voices soaring against aerial views of the Himalayas and Badshahi Masjid; proliferating AI-generated images of US Vice President J.D. Vance sampling Pakistani culinary delights. This was soft power at its mightiest.

The talks in Islamabad signalled a new high for Pakistan’s diplomatic relevance on the global stage — the outcome of years of diplomatic tight-rope walking, juggling relations between the US and China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and even among the Gulf states when their alliances have frayed. More recently, Pakistan successfully shored up relations with regional heavyweights like Turkiye and Egypt.

Pakistan is not new to this role. Recall US national security adviser Henry Kissinger’s secret flight from Islamabad to Beijing in 1971 to revive US-China relations after a two-decade hiatus, or Pakistan’s seat at the table at the 1988 Geneva Accords that carved the Soviet path out of Afghanistan. On this occasion, however, Pakistan’s role was broader, the........

© Dawn