ISLAMABAD
\nThe newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan was on full display this week as US President Donald Trump welcomed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, into the Oval Office, heralding them both as \u201cgreat leaders\u201d, The Guardian reported.
\nHaving been cold-shouldered by successive US presidents, this was the first time a Pakistani prime minister had been invited to Washington in more than six years. It was also the unprecedented second time this year that COAS Munir held an intimate meeting with President Trump.
\nIslamabad\u2019s charm offensive with Trump since his re-election has included handing over to the US a high-profile member of the Daesh affiliate in Afghanistan and publicly crediting the US president with preventing hostilities between India and Pakistan escalating into all-out war, even nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Yet what has appeared most effective is Pakistan\u2019s touting of its allegedly untapped natural resources \u2014 namely oil, minerals and gas \u2014 for US exploration.
\nIn July, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that \u201cwe have just concluded a Deal with the Country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive Oil Reserves. We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this partnership\u201d. The messaging was affirmed by Natalie Baker, the US charge d\u2019affaires in Islamabad, who told local media that US firms had been \u201cshowing keen interest in Pakistan\u2019s oil, gas and mineral sectors, in line with Donald Trump\u2019s vision\u201d.
\nPakistan has already reaped rewards from its promise of oil. After an agreement in August, Trump gave Pakistan a generous 19% tariff on imported goods, the lowest of all south Asia nations and far below the punitive 50% tariffs that its neighbour and nemesis India is facing. This month, a $500m (\u00a3370m) deal for the US to invest in Pakistan\u2019s nascent minerals sector \u2014 including copper and rare earths \u2014 was announced, despite a lack of definitive data on the country\u2019s mineral reserves.
\nYet it is the promise of oil that has left experts and former government ministers even more baffled. They stress that there is no reliable proof that Pakistan has any substantive, untapped oil reserves, despite years of the world\u2019s biggest oil companies attempting to find them. Moin Raza Khan, a geoscientist and former managing director at Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), which has been at the forefront of oil exploration, said: \u201cWhat Trump is claiming about Pakistan\u2019s massive oil reserves has nothing to do with reality.
\nIt is without the support of any data or evidence. We don\u2019t even know where these massive reserves would be, as we don\u2019t have any surveys and studies so far that show us\u201d. Khan was among the experts who emphasised that despite more than half a century of exploration and drilling onshore and offshore, no large-scale commercially viable oil wells had been discovered on Pakistani soil. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan was on full display this week as US President Donald Trump welcomed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, into the Oval Office, heralding them both as \u201cgreat leaders\u201d, The Guardian reported. Having been cold-shouldered by successive US presidents, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n