New Delhi: Pakistan’s latest attempt to woo United States President Donald J. Trump is through its critical minerals deposits and a potential $1.2 billion port in Pasni, located in its mineral-rich Balochistan province.
Pasni, a fishing port next to the Arabian Sea, about 100-odd kilometre from the port of Gwadar and about 200 kilometre from the Pakistan-Iran border has been proposed as a potential commercial port giving the US access to a number of critical minerals from Balochistan including copper and antimony, both of which are vital to producing batteries and missiles reported The Financial Times.
Pasni’s strategic location and closeness to the Chinese-built port in Gwadar are the latest means by which Islamabad is seeking to curry favour with the current Trump administration.
Ties between Pakistan and the US have seen a drastic change in the last few months in the aftermath of the 87-hour conflict with India following the Pahalgam terror attack.
From signing cryptocurrency deals to crediting Trump for ending the conflict with India and proposing his name for the Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistani diplomacy has been in overdrive to curry favour with the White House.
In recent weeks, Islamabad has come out in support of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and has been pushing deeper engagement in security issues such as the fight against ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan. Last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Field Marshal Asim Munir, met with Trump at the White House, where the Pakistani leadership handed over mineral samples to the US administration.
At the same time, Islamabad has sought to create a gap in ties between New Delhi and Washington, D.C., after India rejected the role played by Trump to end the conflict with Pakistan in May, and has further drawn strict lines during negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between India and the US, all of which have frustrated Trump.
Trump imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on India, which is one of the highest against any of the US’s trading partners. However, last month, a partial thaw was seen as Trump spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the latter’s 75th birthday.
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Critical minerals strategy to woo Trump
Pakistan is the latest country to take the critical minerals route to woo Trump. Ties between Islamabad and Washington have cooled over the last decade, especially after Al-Qaida’s leader Osama bin Laden was killed inside Pakistan in May 2011.
Trump has been keen to push deals for critical minerals since the beginning of his second term in the White House in 2025. Competition for critical minerals and rare earth elements has increased in the last few years as the technological race between the US and China has grown.
From pushing for the purchase of the island of Greenland, which is strategically located and has large deposits of critical minerals and REEs, to signing a deal with Ukraine over critical minerals, Trump administration has shown its interest in stepping up its access to these resources.
Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metallic elements that are used in most modern technologies, from batteries to communications equipment, semiconductors and defence systems. While these elements are not uncommon to find, the process to extract and refine them is extremely complex and expensive. China has maintained a strong grip on the production of critical minerals and rare earth elements.
Pakistan and the US were Cold War allies, and later partners in the US’s war on terror. However, the relationship waned in the last few years, due to the legacy of bin Laden’s stay in the country and the US’s pivot to manage China. Pakistan has maintained strong ties with China, with Beijing building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), connecting the mineral-rich Balochistan to its port in Gwadar in the Arabian Sea.
US pivoted towards India, and the relationship between New Delhi and Washington deepened in the last few years. However, years of US diplomacy in South Asia have been upended by Trump, with his open embrace of Munir. During his first term in 2018, Trump had hit out against Pakistan, stating that it had offered the US “nothing but lies and deceit”.
Islamabad has sensed an opportunity in recent months to change the scenario. Last month, Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $500 million with US Strategic Metals (USSM), a company founded in Missouri, US, during which both Sharif and Munir were present.
Natalie Baker, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad, said on the signing of the agreement in a statement on the social media platform X: “Excited to see U.S. companies like USSM deepening economic ties with Pakistan! USSM’s visit to Islamabad marks an important milestone as they sign an MOU to collaborate on critical minerals production. A forward-looking partnership with great potential for both nations.”
Excited to see U.S. companies like USSM deepening economic ties with Pakistan! USSM’s visit to Islamabad marks an important milestone as they sign an MOU to collaborate on critical minerals production. A forward-looking partnership with great potential for both nations. -NB…
— U.S. Embassy Islamabad (@usembislamabad) September 8, 2025
The potential partnership between the US and Pakistan in the mining sector also follows from Trump’s promise to build Islamabad’s oil and petroleum industry, a promise he made in a social media post earlier this year.
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Port of Pasni
Pasni, a fishing town on the Arabian Sea, if developed as a deep-sea port, would allow US to gain access to Central Asia, bypassing Iran and China.
Pakistan has long flaunted Balochistan’s mineral wealth, which is one of its poorest provinces and its worsening security. It is home to at least two large copper mines—Saindak, which is operated by the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) and the planned mining operation at Reko Diq, which is considered to have one of the world’s largest deposits of copper and gold.
However, any US interest, along with China’s continued presence in the region, could change the situation. The port of Pasni would offer the US a potential outlet to evince interest from investors.
Furthermore, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan announced a tripartite framework on 17 July, linking the Uzbek capital of Tashkent with Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The railway line with its own port in Pasni would offer Washington, D.C., access to the mineral wealth in Afghanistan without having to rely on other routes.
This also places India in a difficult situation since New Delhi has long promoted Chabahar, the port project in Iran, as a way to connect to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. However, the Trump administration last month cancelled the sanctions waiver it gave India to operate Chabahar to connect with Afghanistan.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)