Description: Senior Bureau Official for South and Central Asian Affairs, within the US State Department, Eric Meyer met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss US interests in Pakistan’s vast mineral reserves sector. The meet was held on the outskirts of the Business Summit in Islamabad where Meyer expressed the US is willing to closely cooperate with Pakistan on key issues such as defense, trade and the exploitation of mineral reserves. Prime Minister Shahbaz also welcomed the US interest in cooperation with Pakistan and stated that American companies are welcomed on Pakistan’s wide mining market.
Impact: The meet between Eric Meyer and the Pakistani Prime Minister highlights the importance of rare earth minerals in today’s global competition for dominance on the technology – based market. Pakistan in negotiating a potential deal would most likely require security guarantees from the US, as most deposits of rare earth minerals are located in the separatist controlled region of Baluchistan. The US is currently weighing global investment options as they tapped the conflict – thorn DRC and their rare earth deposits as well. The rare earth mineral’s race is the newest global competition towards tapping resources critical to developing industries. The US would aim to facilitate large number of bilateral cooperation agreements ,while countering Chinese and Russian influence on a global scale in areas of economic and trade interests.