• At same time, Zardari meets Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
• Bilawal appears fully active on the diplomatic front.
• National Prayer, Faith ceremonies are being held in US.
  

WASHINGTON: National Prayer Breakfast hosted by newly-elected US President Donald Trump has been attended by high-ranking personalities from across the globe, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on his invitation.

The event occurred at 7am in the US capital, Washington. The breakfast continued for around 7 hours till 2pm, The News reported.

Bilawal was attending Trump’s breakfast ceremony at a time when his father and President Asif Ali Zardari was meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. “We are allies of China first, then of anyone else,” President Zardari said on this occasion.

Two of Pakistan’s top leaders have attended meetings of the heads of state of two world powers around the same time. And so Bilawal, who is not part of the government, has appeared fully active on the diplomatic front. He arrived in the US on Monday to attend the breakfast.

Several National Prayer and Faith ceremonies are being held in the US this week, wherein US President Trump and Vice President J D Vance will participate, but this is the first time that Bilawal has attended a ceremony hosted by Trump.

Amid media speculations and unconfirmed reports, Bilawal on January 24 confirmed that he was going to attend breakfast at the invitation of the US president, in a personal capacity.

He had said this in response to a query, asking him if it was true that he was invited to attend an event of the new US administration.

“As far as my US visit is concerned, this is completely true. I will definitely go for breakfast, a practice that’s continued from my mother’s tenure. There’s a possibility of holding meetings with friends of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto there [as well].

“Neither I’m a minister nor a government official so this [trip of mine] is not official or as a representative of the government,” he had said.

It is pertinent to mention here that PPP Co-chairman Zardari had attended the pre-inauguration oath ceremony of then-US president-elect Trump in Washington, DC in 2017.