After being mocked by national and international media, the Trump team has issued its own version of the Sharif-Trump telephone call, saying that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and US president-elect Donald Trump did have a ‘productive conversation’, but it lacked the ‘flowery language’ included in the Pakistani version of this talk.
A statement released by the Trump transition team it stated,“President-elect Trump and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke … had a productive conversation about how the United States and Pakistan will have a strong working relationship in the future.”
“President-elect Trump also noted that he is looking forward to a lasting and strong personal relationship with Prime Minister Sharif,” the statement added.
The most critical comment on the Pakistani readout, however, came from a former White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, “It’s entirely inappropriate for the Pakistani government to release what an American president-elect says in the course of a phone call.”
The US media also criticised the Pakistani decision to release the readout, agreeing with Mr Fleischer that it was inappropriate.
“Readouts of phone calls between world leaders are usually written safely in order to protect leaders from incidental backlashes — like the one the Trump team put out,” CNN noted.
“They’re dry and diplomatic statements summing up conversations using carefully chosen buzzwords.”
The Washington Post called the Pakistani release “a surprisingly candid read” and noted that it “focuses almost entirely on Trump’s contribution to the conversation, and reproduces them in a voice that is unmistakably Trump’s.”
The New York Times called it “a bizarre conversation”, noting that “while not exactly confirming the content, the Trump transition team did acknowledge the call”.