US President Donald Trump has announced a trade agreement with Pakistan and said that Washington, along with Islamabad, will work to develop the “huge oil reserves” of the South Asian country. It is not yet clear which huge oil reserves Trump was talking about in Pakistan.
In a social media post, the US President also surprised whether Pakistan could sell oil to India someday.
“We have just entered into an agreement with Pakistan, under which Pakistan and the US will work together to develop their huge oil reserves,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
He further said, “We are in the process of choosing the oil company that will lead this partnership. Who knows, maybe they will sell oil to India someday!”
Pakistan has been claiming to have large oil reserves on its coast for a long time, but there has been no progress in exploiting these reserves. He is trying to attract investment to exploit these stores.
The country currently imports oil from the Middle East to meet its energy requirements.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday thanked Trump on social media for the “historic” trade agreement and hoped that this would increase cooperation between the two sides.
He wrote on X, “I want to thank President Trump Donald Trump for his leadership role in finalizing the historic America-Pakistan trade agreement, which was successfully performed by both sides in Washington last night.”
He said, “This historic agreement will increase our growing cooperation, which will expand the limits of our permanent partnership in the coming days.”
According to Radio Pakistan, the agreement was reached during the meeting held at Washington DC between Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutynik and US trade representative Ambassador Jamison Greer.
The report states that the purpose of the trade agreement is to promote bilateral trade, expand market access, draw investment and promote cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
It further states, “As a result of this agreement, especially there will be a decrease in mutual fees on Pakistani exports to the United States. The agreement especially symbolizes the beginning of a new era of energy, mine and minerals, IT, cryptocurrency and other fields.”
The announcement was made by Trump a few hours after Trump’s announcement of 25 percent tariffs on all goods coming from India and additional unspecified fine on the purchase of Russian military equipment and energy.
In a post on social media, Trump described India’s trade policies as “extremely rigid and unpleasant”. “Everything is not right! So India will have to pay 25 percent tariff and a fine for the above,” said Trump.
During the day, he talked about the tariffs imposed by India several times and mentioned India’s membership in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group, which he described as “anti -America”.
In response to a question on a conversation with India, Trump said that Washington is talking to Delhi. He said, “Let’s see, we are currently interacting with India.” He described India’s tariff as “one of the most tariffs in the world”.
Trump said the White House has been “very busy” working on business agreements, and he will hold a meeting with the South Korean trade delegation.
He said, “Similarly, other countries are also offering tariffs reduction. All these will help reduce our trade deficit to a great extent. A complete report will be released at the appropriate time.”
India said that it has focused on Trump’s statement on bilateral trade and the government is studying its effects. The statement said, “India and America have been negotiating on a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement for the past few months. We are committed to this purpose.”
Trump has fixed August 1 to apply his tariff.
