Trump says US and Pakistan have signed trade deal to develop oil reserves

US President says countries are in process of choosing company to 'lead partnership'

US President Donald Trump has said tariffs are helping to reduce the country's trade deficit with other nations. Reuters

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday 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 had 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.

Pakistan’s Energy Minister Muhammad Ali was quoted by The Express Tribune as saying last year that his country has 235 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, and 10 per cent of it can be explored with an investment of between $25 billion to $30 billion in the next decade.

“Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling oil to India some day,” Mr Trump added in his post.

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Tension between Pakistan and India boiled over into violence this year in Indian-administered Kashmir, after more than two dozen people, most of them tourists, were killed by an extremist group. Strikes between the two countries persisted for about two weeks before a ceasefire was announced. Mr Trump took credit for brokering that truce.

Earlier on Wednesday, he 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 a Truth Social post, Mr Trump said he would meet a trade delegation from South Korea to discuss the 25 per cent tariff 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 said, adding that a full report “will be released at the appropriate time”.