Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a strategic mutual defence agreement on Wednesday, strengthening a decades-long defensive alliance as uncertainty over the Gulf’s security escalates.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the pact during a meeting in Riyadh.
A statement from the Saudi state’s news agency, SPA, said that the agreement “reflects the shared commitment of both nations to enhance their security.”
The agreement also stated that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”
This strategic defence pact comes just a week after Israel’s strikes on Doha, Qatar, which killed five Hamas members and a Qatari officer.
Israel’s attack, described as “brazen” and “illegal by international law” by countless politicians, came whilst Egypt and the U.S., together with Qatar, were mediating indirect talks between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire.
The strike on Qatar opened up a new front in Israel’s more broad campaign over the last two years, which has seen attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank and Yemen.
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Analysts have also pointed out how the pact between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has also come amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, after the short yet intense conflict in May between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
This recent defence pact will undoubtedly be closely watched by India, Pakistan’s nuclear-armed archrival.
A ‘nuclear umbrella’
Saudi Arabia has also long expressed an interest in the acquisition of nuclear technology, despite making clear that it had no intention to seek out its own nuclear weapon arsenal.
Some curious onlookers see the new Pakistan-Saudi alliance as a “nuclear shield” of protection for Saudi Arabia, as Pakistan is one of the nine countries in the world with a nuclear arsenal.
Sahar Khan, an independent security analyst in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera that “while Pakistan has made defence pacts before, none of those have led to nuclear assurances or a formation of a ‘nuclear umbrella’.”
Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said that this pact could serve as a template for Pakistan’s future bilateral agreements in the region with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, two of the largest players in the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to recognise Pakistan after its independence in August of 1947.
In 1951, the two countries signed a “Treaty of Friendship,” which laid the foundation for decades of strategic cooperation.
Over the decades, a small number of Pakistan’s armed forces have been stationed in the Saudi kingdom for training purposes.
Official records state that Pakistan has trained more than 8,000 Saudis since 1967
