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Islamabad, Pakistan – A beaming Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – welcomed with Saudi F-15 fighter jets, a purple carpet, and full royal protocol – joined Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday to signal a “strategic mutual defence settlement” (SMDA).
Observers say it’s a landmark second within the decades-old alliance between the 2 nations whose ties stretch again almost eight many years.
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The signing ceremony on the Royal Courtroom in Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh was witnessed by senior officers from Saudi Arabia, the custodian of two of Islam’s holiest websites, alongside representatives from Pakistan, the Muslim world’s solely nuclear energy.
The deal comes at a crucial second. Regional politics have been upended by two years of Israeli aggression – together with its struggle on Gaza and strikes on neighbouring states – capped by final week’s Israeli assault on Doha, Qatar’s capital, which borders Saudi Arabia.
Nevertheless it additionally comes amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, after a brief however intense battle in Might by which they struck one another’s navy bases over 4 days, taking South Asia to the brink of a full-fledged struggle between nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated the settlement with Saudi Arabia displays the “shared dedication” of each nations to strengthen safety and promote regional peace, whereas additionally pledging to “strengthen joint deterrence towards any aggression”.
“The settlement states that any aggression towards both nation shall be thought of an aggression towards each,” the ministry said.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior fellow on the Washington DC-based Stimson Middle, described the pact as a “watershed” for each international locations.
“Pakistan beforehand maintained mutual defence treaties with the USA in the course of the Chilly Battle, however they crumbled by the ’70s. Even with China, regardless of in depth defence cooperation, Pakistan lacks a proper mutual defence pact,” Mir advised Al Jazeera.
Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia safety researcher on the College of Expertise Sydney, stated the deal may function a template for Pakistan to have interaction in comparable bilateral defence cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, two key Gulf companions.
“Within the quick time period, this settlement will consolidate and formalise multi-prong defence cooperation already below manner, and new avenues to increase it by way of joint trainings, defence manufacturing and potential growth of Pakistani troops contingent in Saudi Arabia might be explored,” Faisal stated.
Historic bonds and navy cooperation
Saudi Arabia was one of many first international locations to recognise Pakistan after its independence in August 1947. In 1951, the 2 nations signed a “Treaty of Friendship,” laying the inspiration for many years of strategic, political, navy, and financial cooperation.
Through the years, Pakistani armed forces have deployed to the dominion a number of occasions and skilled Saudi personnel each within the Gulf and in Pakistan.
In response to official data, Pakistan has trained greater than 8,000 Saudis since 1967. An settlement signed in 1982 additional cemented this cooperation by making certain the “deputation of Pakistan Armed Forces personnel and navy coaching” in Saudi Arabia.
However the newest pact arrives because the Center East’s geopolitical chessboard is in flux. The fallout from Israel’s struggle on Gaza and its strikes on regional neighbours has made Gulf states uneasy, a lot of which nonetheless rely closely on United States safety ensures, at the same time as Washington stays Israel’s closest ally.
Qatar, attacked by Israel on September 9 for internet hosting Hamas leaders, serves because the forward headquarters for US Central Command (Centcom).
As of mid-2025, some 40,000–50,000 US troops are stationed throughout the Center East, deployed in giant bases and smaller ahead websites – a minimum of 19 of them – together with Prince Sultan Air Base exterior Riyadh.
Whereas Saudi officers say the take care of Pakistan has been within the works for a minimum of a yr, Sahar Khan, an unbiased safety analyst in Washington, DC, stated its language will increase eyebrows within the US.
Throughout its tenure from 2021 to 2025, President Joe Biden’s administration imposed sanctions on seven occasions focusing on Pakistani people and corporations over alleged ballistic missile growth. Biden administration officers additionally publicly raised issues over the vary of missiles Pakistan was constructing, and whether or not they may carry nuclear weapons so far as the US.
“Pakistan already has a credibility drawback in Washington, and this settlement received’t cut back it,” Khan advised Al Jazeera.
Khan stated that it’s in Pakistan’s curiosity to make clear that its nuclear and missiles programme is India-centric, and whereas its bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia stay sturdy, “it won’t combat Saudi wars however as a substitute, will solely present related assist”.
A area on edge
Earlier this yr, in June, Israel waged a 12-day struggle with Iran, focusing on nuclear amenities in addition to senior civilian and navy leaders. American bomber jets supported the assault, dropping huge bunker-buster bombs on Fordow, one among Iran’s key nuclear websites.
Three months later, Israel struck a constructing in a leafy Doha neighbourhood that’s house to embassies, supermarkets and colleges, killing a minimum of 5 Hamas members and one Qatari safety official.
The Doha assault triggered an emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – stated they’d activate a joint defence mechanism.
Faisal stated the Pakistan-Saudi pact needs to be considered by way of the lens of those developments.
“These occasions have exacerbated safety anxieties of the Gulf states whereas jeopardising confidence within the US safety umbrella as the final word defend. As Gulf states look to bolster their safety, regional international locations equivalent to Pakistan, Egypt and Turkiye emerge as pure companions,” he stated.
Khan, nevertheless, stated that whereas the timing of the pact does recommend a hyperlink with Israel’s latest assault on Qatar, “such sorts of agreements take months, if not years, to barter”.
But, the Stimson Middle’s Mir identified that the settlement would additionally take a look at how each Pakistan and Saudi Arabia handle their publicity to the opposite’s tensions with international locations with which they’ve in any other case cautiously managed relations, or are even mates with.
“Pakistan now dangers entanglement in Saudi Arabia’s regional rivalries, significantly with its neighbour Iran,” he stated. “Saudi Arabia has dedicated itself to Pakistan’s disputes, notably with India, and probably with the Taliban-led Afghanistan.”
The Indian query
The defence deal will even be watched carefully in India, Pakistan’s nuclear-armed archrival.
Relations between India and Pakistan, already at a historic low, plummeted additional in April after the Pahalgam assault, by which gunmen killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir, for which India blamed Pakistan, which the latter rejected.
Days later, in Might, the 2 international locations fought a four-day skirmish, focusing on one another’s navy bases with missiles and drones of their most critical escalation in almost three many years earlier than a ceasefire on Might 10 that US President Donald Trump claims he brokered.
On Thursday, throughout a weekly information briefing, Indian overseas ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the Indian authorities was conscious of the signing of the pact.
“We are going to research the implications of this growth for our nationwide safety in addition to for regional and world stability. The federal government stays dedicated to defending India’s nationwide pursuits and making certain complete nationwide safety in all domains,” Jaiswal stated.
However this settlement, says Sydney-based Faisal, may rebalance the Pakistan-Saudi relationship, which lately has been outlined by Saudi monetary bailouts for a struggling Pakistani economic system, at the same time as Riyadh cultivated nearer ties with India.
“Pakistan’s relative place has improved,” he stated, “and new house has opened for increasing the Pak-Saudi cooperation on each bilateral defence and regional safety issues.”
With Pakistan’s economic system faltering and more and more depending on Saudi support over the past decade, India had been steadily deepening its personal relationship with Riyadh. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his third go to to Saudi Arabia in a decade this April.
Mir stated the brand new pact reveals that Saudi Arabia nonetheless sees worth in its relationship with Pakistan, and that Islamabad isn’t remoted in its prolonged neighbourhood – regardless of Indian makes an attempt to get international locations to distance themselves from Pakistan.
“At exactly the second when Pakistan is confronted with the specter of Indian navy motion,” he stated, “Pakistan has secured a powerful collective defence settlement from Saudi Arabia. So, it introduces a number of complexity to future India-Pakistan dynamics.”
Pakistan’s nuclear defend over Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia has lengthy expressed curiosity in buying nuclear know-how for civilian use, to diversify from fossil fuels.
In January, Saudi Vitality Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud reiterated Riyadh’s readiness to counterpoint and promote uranium, a key element of nuclear programmes.
However Saudi Arabia has additionally repeatedly made clear that it doesn’t search to pursue nuclear weapons.
In his 2024 e book Battle, American journalist Bob Woodward recounted a dialog by which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed reportedly advised US Senator Lindsey Graham that Riyadh deliberate to counterpoint uranium just for vitality functions.
When Graham expressed concern concerning the prospect of a Saudi bomb, Woodward wrote, Salman replied:
“I don’t want uranium to make a bomb. I’ll simply purchase one from Pakistan.”
Nonetheless, Khan, the analyst, stated some issues have been unclear concerning the ambit of the settlement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
“You will need to be aware that whereas Pakistan has made defence pacts earlier than, none of these have led to nuclear assurances or a formation of a ‘nuclear umbrella’. There’s nothing on this settlement that signifies a formation of a nuclear umbrella or any extended deterrence,” she stated.
Mir warned that even strong alliances carry dangers.
“The pact will set off a brand new alliance politics round what it does or doesn’t cowl, deterrence, useful resource dedication, operational particulars, amongst others,” he stated. Nonetheless, he added, that doesn’t diminish the political significance of this pact being struck.
“It’s an enormous growth for each international locations.”
Faisal, too, agreed, stating that whereas the deal refers to treating an aggression towards one nation towards each, that’s maybe extra of a political assertion, fairly than an alliance or joint defence dedication, for now.
“Nonetheless, the political and defence coordination between the 2 sides will deepen, whereas strengthening respective navy capabilities of each international locations,” he stated.
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