The TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump is assembly Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif within the Oval Workplace on Thursday, advancing ties with a rustic he described in his first time period as a terrorist safe-haven that has lengthy conned America. The White Home has listed Trump’s assembly with Sharif for 4.30 pm EST (2 am IST) after bilateral conferences and lunch with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Pakistani prime minister buttonholed Trump on the sidelines of his assembly with eight Islamic-Arab international locations in New York on Tuesday, and a 36-second video clip shared by Pakistan’s ministry of international affairs confirmed him emphatically making some level along with his international minister Ishaq Dar by his aspect. Trump’s assembly with Pakistan’s civilian management comes after two back-to-back visits to US by the nation’s military chief and de facto navy ruler Asim Munir, together with a White Home luncheon through which he proposed a Nobel Prize for the US president for ending the conflict Pakistan triggered with India with a terrorist assault in Pahalgam. The presidential lunch, unprecedented for a international navy chief, signaled a outstanding US pivot that, in line with a number of accounts, was facilitated by personal American enterprise pursuits in cryptocurrency tied to the Trump household. Pakistan has additionally pledged to throw open its purported mineral wealth to exploration by the US, which faces a scarcity of vital uncommon earths on which China has a stranglehold. Earlier this month, the Missouri-based US Strategic Metals (USSM), specialising within the extraction, recycling, and mining of vital minerals equivalent to cobalt, nickel, copper, and uncommon earth parts from lithium-ion batteries, inked a $500 million MoU with Pakistan’s Nationwide Logistics Company for recycling and mining these property. Along with the sweeteners, Pakistan additionally gives the gateway to the renewed US curiosity in Afghanistan, particularly retaking the Bagram Air Base exterior Kabul, which President Trump has recognized as very important to US nationwide pursuits due to its proximity to China’s nuclear property. Whereas there may be little probability that Pakistan will ditch its increased than mountains, deeper than oceans, sweeter than honey pal and patron that has lengthy patronised it, weaning Islamabad away from Beijing has lengthy been a Washington goal that has taken on urgency with China’s rise as the principle US adversary. None of this was on the horizon throughout Trump’s first time period when he underscored Pakistan’s perfidy and its ties to terrorism. “The USA has foolishly given Pakistan greater than 33 billion {dollars} in support during the last 15 years, they usually have given us nothing however lies & deceit, pondering of our leaders as fools. They provide protected haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little assist. No extra!” he mentioned in a January 1, 2018, put up. On November 19 the identical yr, he mentioned, “We now not pay Pakistan the $Billions as a result of they might take our cash and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a main instance, Afghanistan being one other. They have been simply one among many international locations that take from the US with out giving something in return. That’s ending!” Certainly, Pakistan itself seems to have ended Trump’s complaints by promising the US huge riches in crypto and mineral – together with endorsement for his Nobel Prize quest for ending its conflict with India, a declare that’s now comedic gold mud for late-night speak present hosts. “Trump says he ended seven wars in seven months. That is spectacular—it is like if I mentioned I misplaced seven kilos by consuming seven Massive Macs,” joked CBS’ Stephen Colbert earlier this week. And from NBC’s Seth Meyers: Trump ended seven wars, together with India-Pakistan—says who? India mentioned, ‘We dealt with it ourselves, thanks.’ It is like Trump taking credit score for ending my conflict on sleep by tweeting at 3 am.