A beaming Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, joined Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday to sign a “strategic mutual defence agreement” (SMDA), which includes a red carpet, a red carpet, and full royal protocol.
Observers say it is a landmark moment in the decades-old alliance between the two nations whose ties stretch back nearly eight decades.
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The signing ceremony at the Royal Court in Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh was witnessed by senior officials from Saudi Arabia, the custodian of two of Islam’s holiest sites, alongside representatives from Pakistan, the Muslim world’s only nuclear power.
The timing of the agreement is crucial. Two years of Israeli aggression, including its war against Gaza and strikes against neighboring states, culminated last week with Israel’s attack on Doha, Qatar’s capital, which borders Saudi Arabia.
But it also comes amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, after a short but intense conflict in May in which they struck each other’s military bases over four days, taking South Asia to the brink of a full-fledged war between nuclear-armed neighbours.
The agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs, “reflects the shared commitment” of both countries to improve regional peace and enhance security,” while also promising to “strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression.”
According to the ministry, “the agreement stipulates that any aggression against either country shall be regarded as an aggression against both.”
Asfandyar Mir, a senior fellow at the Washington DC-based Stimson Center, described the pact as a “watershed” for both countries.
Prior to the Cold War, Pakistan and the United States had mutual defense agreements, but they were broken by the 1970s. Pakistan doesn’t have a formal mutual defense pact with China, Mir reported to Al Jazeera despite intensive defense cooperation.
Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said the deal could serve as a template for Pakistan to engage in similar bilateral defence cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, two key Gulf partners.
This agreement will strengthen and formalize multi-pronged defense cooperation that is already in place, according to Faisal, and it will look into new avenues for expanding it through joint training, defense production, and potential expansion of Pakistani troops contingent in Saudi Arabia.
Military cooperation and historical ties
Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to recognise Pakistan after its independence in August 1947. A “Treaty of Friendship” between the two countries, which laid the groundwork for decades of strategic, political, military, and economic cooperation, was signed in 1951.
Saudi personnel have been trained both in the Gulf and in Pakistan through Pakistani armed forces’ periodic deployments to the kingdom.
According to official records, Pakistan has trained more than 8, 000 Saudis since 1967. By ensuring the “deputation of Pakistan Armed Forces personnel and military training” in Saudi Arabia, an 1982 agreement added to this cooperation.
The Middle East’s geopolitical chessboard is changing, so the most recent pact arrives. The fallout from Israel’s war on Gaza and its strikes on regional neighbours has made Gulf states uneasy, many of which still rely heavily on United States security guarantees, even as Washington remains Israel’s closest ally.
Qatar, which Israel attacked on September 9 because it hosted Hamas leaders, serves as US Central Command’s (Centcom) forward headquarters.
Around 40, 000 to 50, 000 US troops are stationed in large bases and smaller forward sites in the Middle East as of mid-2025, including Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh, among them.
While Saudi officials say the deal with Pakistan has been in the works for at least a year, Sahar Khan, an independent security analyst in Washington, DC, said its language will raise eyebrows in the US.
President Joe Biden’s administration imposed sanctions on Pakistani citizens and businesses on seven occasions during its eight years of office, starting in 2021 and 2025. Additionally, officials from the Obama administration publicly expressed concerns about the potential for US nuclear weapons to be carried by the missiles Pakistan was building.
“Pakistan already has a credibility problem in Washington, and this agreement won’t reduce it”, Khan told Al Jazeera.
Khan stated that Pakistan’s clarification that its nuclear and missile programs are centered on India is important, and that while its bilateral ties with Saudi Arabia are strong, it won’t fight Saudi wars but will only offer pertinent support.
a remote area
Earlier this year, in June, Israel waged a 12-day war with Iran, targeting nuclear facilities as well as senior civilian and military leaders. The assault was supported by American bomber jets, which dropped massive bunker bombs on Fordow, one of Iran’s most important nuclear sites.
At least five Hamas members and a Qatari security official were killed when Israel struck a building in a leafy Doha neighborhood, which houses embassies, supermarkets, and schools.
The Doha attack triggered an emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (GCC) nations) have announced they will activate a joint defense mechanism.
According to Faisal, these developments should be taken into account when evaluating the Pakistan-Saudi pact.
“These events have exacerbated security anxieties of the Gulf states while jeopardising confidence in the US security umbrella as the ultimate shield. Regional nations like Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkiye have the potential to become natural partners as Gulf states seek to strengthen their security, he said.
Khan, however, noted that “such kinds of agreements take months, if not years, to negotiate,” even though the timing of the pact does suggest a connection to Israel’s most recent attack on Qatar.
Yet, the Stimson Center’s Mir pointed out that the agreement would also test how both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia manage their exposure to the other’s tensions with countries with which they have otherwise cautiously managed relations, or are even friends with.
Pakistan now runs the risk of becoming entangled in Saudi Arabia’s regional rivalries, particularly Iran, he said. “Saudi Arabia has resolutely fought Pakistan’s disputes,” he said. “This includes our disagreements with India and, possibly, with the Taliban-led Afghanistan.
The Indian question
India, Pakistan’s nuclear-armed adversary, will also be closely monitoring the defense deal.
After the Pahalgam attack, when 26 civilians were killed by gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir, India and Pakistan’s relationship, which the latter rejected, deteriorated further in April.
Days later, in May, the two countries fought a four-day skirmish, targeting each other’s military bases with missiles and drones in their most serious escalation in nearly three decades before a ceasefire on May 10 that US President Donald Trump claims he brokered.
Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Indian government, said on Thursday that the Indian government was aware of the signing of the pact during a weekly news conference.
We will examine the effects of this development on both regional and global stability as well as our national security. The government remains committed to protecting India’s national interests and ensuring comprehensive national security in all domains”, Jaiswal said.
However, this agreement, according to Sydney-based Faisal, could restore the Pakistan-Saudi relationship, which has historically been defined by Saudi financial bailouts for a struggling Pakistani economy, even as Riyadh and India have forged closer ties.
According to him, “Pakistan’s relative position has improved, and new opportunities have opened for expanding the Pak-Saudi cooperation on bilateral defense and regional security issues.”
With Pakistan’s economy faltering and increasingly dependent on Saudi aid during the last decade, India had been steadily deepening its own relationship with Riyadh. This April, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his third trip to Saudi Arabia in a decade.
In spite of Indian attempts to distance nations from Pakistan, Mir claimed the new pact demonstrates that Saudi Arabia still believes in its relationship with Pakistan and that Islamabad is not isolated in its immediate vicinity.
“At precisely the moment when Pakistan is faced with the threat of Indian military action”, he said, “Pakistan has secured a strong collective defence agreement from Saudi Arabia. Therefore, future India-Pakistan dynamics are much more complex.
Saudi Arabia’s nuclear shield, Pakistan?
Saudi Arabia has long expressed interest in acquiring nuclear technology for civilian use, to diversify from fossil fuels.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, the head of Saudi energy, reiterated in January that Riyadh is committed to enriching and selling uranium, a crucial component of nuclear programs.
Saudi Arabia has also made it abundantly clear that it does not intend to pursue nuclear weapons.
In his 2024 book War, American journalist Bob Woodward recounted a conversation in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed reportedly told US Senator Lindsey Graham that Riyadh planned to enrich uranium only for energy purposes.
Salman responded to Graham’s question about the possibility of a Saudi bomb in Woodward’s essay:
I can’t make a bomb without uranium. I will just buy one from Pakistan”.
The scope of the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia agreement is still ambiguous, according to Khan, the analyst.
“It is important to note that Pakistan has previously signed defense agreements, but none of those have resulted in nuclear guarantees or the formation of a “nuclear umbrella.” There is nothing in this agreement that indicates a formation of a nuclear umbrella or any extended deterrence”, she said.
Mir cautioned against the risk of even strong alliances.
According to him, the pact will “start a new alliance politics” regarding topics like deterrence, resource commitment, operational details, and other issues. However, he added, that does not diminish the political significance of this pact being struck.
“Both countries benefit greatly from this,” he said.
Faisal also agreed, noting that while the agreement specifies that an aggression against one nation is a conflict of interest, it is likely more of a political statement than a joint defense commitment for the time being.
Source: Aljazeera
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