Trump announced a US-Pakistan trade deal to jointly develop Pakistan’s “massive oil reserves” and hinted the oil could be sold to India in future.
Hours later, he imposed a 25% tariff on all Indian goods, plus an additional penalty over India’s military and energy ties with Russia.
India said it has “taken note” of the statement and remains committed to a “fair, balanced and mutually beneficial” trade agreement with the US.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Washington had sealed a trade deal with Pakistan and would work with Islamabad to develop what he called the South Asian nation’s “massive oil reserves”.
“We 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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “We are in the process of choosing the oil company that will lead this partnership. Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling oil to India some day!”
It is not immediately clear what oil reserves the US President was referring to. Pakistan currently imports oil from the Middle East to meet its domestic energy requirements, though there have been periodic reports about potentially vast offshore deposits. These remain largely unexplored due to a lack of technical expertise and funding. Successive governments have attempted to attract foreign investment to tap into these reserves, without much progress on the ground.
There was no immediate response from Pakistani authorities to the trade deal claim.
Trump’s announcement came just hours after he declared that all goods coming from India would be subjected to a 25 per cent tariff starting 1 August. He also announced an additional, unspecified penalty, citing India’s purchases of Russian military equipment and energy.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump referred to India’s trade policies as “most strenuous and obnoxious”. “All things not good! India will therefore be paying a tariff of 25 per cent, plus a penalty for the above, starting on August first,” he wrote.
Throughout the day, Trump spoke multiple times about tariffs imposed by India and criticised the country’s role in BRICS, the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa grouping, calling it “anti-US”.
When asked about the status of trade negotiations with India, Trump responded: “...We are going to see, we're negotiating with India right now,” while calling India’s tariff regime “one of the highest tariffs in the world”.
He also mentioned ongoing trade talks with South Korea and claimed that other countries were offering tariff reductions. “Likewise, other Countries are making offers for a Tariff reduction. All of this will help reduce our Trade Deficit in a very major way. A full report will be released at the appropriate time,” he said.
In response to Trump’s remarks, the Indian government said it had “taken note” and was studying the implications. “India and the US have been engaged in negotiations on concluding a fair, balanced and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement over the last few months. We remain committed to that objective,” the official statement read.
Trump has set 1 August as the date for the India tariffs to go into effect
