Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan returned home from Washington on Thursday after a visit seen by supporters as a major diplomatic success, saying he felt like he had when he came back after winning the cricket World Cup.

US President Donald Trump’s warm reception of Khan and a delegation including the army chief and the head of the powerful ISI intelligence service was a welcome relief to a government under increasing economic pressure at home.

He said the presence of the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and ISI head General Faiz Hameed alongside Khan in Washington were a strong signal that US mistrust of Pakistan’s security establishment had eased.

By contrast, the US president managed to annoy India, Pakistan’s longtime foe, with an unexpected offer to mediate in the decades-long dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Trump also caused outrage in Kabul with an apparently throwaway remark that Afghanistan could be “wiped off the face of the earth”.Offering reassurance that Pakistan would help seal a peace agreement with the Taliban to allow U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, Khan went some way towards rebuilding Pakistan’s image in Washington after years of US suspicions.

While there was no announcement that the United States would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance cut off last year, the visit sent a signal that relations had improved significantly.

The United States has for years been doubtful about Pakistan’s wholehearted commitment to the U.S.-led war on terrorism, largely because of suspicion that Pakistan sees some militants, including the Afghan Taliban, as useful tools in its rivalry with India.

Pakistani officials had laid the groundwork for the visit months earlier, with a visit to Islamabad in January by Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally who has argued strongly against any precipitous U.S. pullout from Afghanistan.He gave enthusiastic backing to Khan’s government and publicly urged Trump to meet Khan.