Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the recently signed Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defense agreement has “formalized” a decades-old military partnership that was previously “a bit transactional.”
In an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan, Asif dismissed suggestions that the accord was a reaction to Israel’s bombing of Qatar, stating that negotiations had been underway for some time and the events “may have only sped it up a bit.”
On September 17, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement in Riyadh, pledging that any attack on either country would be treated as an act of aggression against both.
Asif reiterated that Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities were not part of the pact, despite earlier speculation. “I will refrain from going into the details, but it’s a defense pact,, and defense pacts are normally not discussed publicly,” he said.
Responding to Hasan’s question on whether Saudi Arabia was under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella, the minister said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had maintained defense ties for “five or six decades,” including a sustained Pakistani military presence in the kingdom. He stressed the new agreement only formalized this long-standing cooperation.
The minister also rejected claims made in journalist Bob Woodward’s 2024 book War, in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allegedly told a US senator that he could “just buy” a bomb from Pakistan. “I think that is just sensationalized […] No, I don’t believe that quote,” Asif remarked, adding, “We are very responsible people.”
The defense pact has been hailed as a landmark in Pakistan-Saudi relations, raising questions about its regional implications at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East..