When Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met US President Donald Trump at the White House this week, he was carrying with him a promise unlike any that his predecessors have taken to such meetings. For several years, Pakistan’s primary strategic value to the United States was its role as a security partner, first during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and then during the so-called “war on terror”. That relationship slowly collapsed amid accusations in the US that Islamabad was duplicitous and couldn’t be trusted, especially after American forces found Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. But recent a high-profile signing ceremony at the Pakistan PM’s residence, provided a glimpse of the country’s new offer to the US. The big agreement – on Pakistan supplying critical minerals and rare earth elements to the US. n18oc_world n18oc_crux