2 days ago
Trump says US and Pakistan have signed trade deal to develop oil reserves
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the US and Pakistan have signed a trade deal focused on the development of oil reserves in the Asian country.
Mr Trump, who made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social platform, said his team has been 'very busy' working on trade deals.
'We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this Partnership,' Mr Trump said of the deal with Pakistan.
The Express Tribune quoted Pakistan's Energy Minister Mohammad Ali as saying last year that his country has 235 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves, and 10 per cent of it can be explored with an investment of $25 billion to $30 billion in the next one decade.
'Who knows, maybe they'll be selling Oil to India some day!' the President added in his post.
Pakistan and India have a historically tense relationship that boiled over into violence this year in Indian-controlled Kashmir, after more than two dozen people, most of them tourists, were killed by an extremist group. Tit-for-tat strikes between the two countries persisted for about two weeks before a ceasefire was announced.
Mr Trump took credit for brokering that ceasefire.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump announced the US would impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods from India as well as a 'penalty' for buying Russian energy and military hardware. He accused India of enabling the war in Ukraine through its purchases from Moscow.
In his Truth Social post, the President said that he would be meeting with a trade delegation from South Korea to discuss the 25 per cent tariffs the US has levied on Seoul.
'Other Countries are making offers for a Tariff reduction. All of this will help reduce our Trade Deficit in a very major way,' Mr Trump added, adding that a full report 'will be released at the appropriate time'.
