"On 17 September 2025, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a ‘strategic mutual defence’ pact, pledging to support one another should either face aggression from a third party. The deal represents a significant shift in the strategic landscape of the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, a ‘vital US partner’ no longer looking exclusively on Washington for its defence guarantees, Few further details have been made public regarding the agreement, but both sides certainly made the decision with a view to the war in Gaza, prior to its conclusion," a report in 'The Geopolitics', detailed.
"At the same time, Riyadh and Islamabad each bring their own regional tensions under the agreement’s purview, which could see it called into action sooner rather than later. Major questions also remain about the pact’s potential nuclear dimensions, with neither side in any hurry to dispel the notion that Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent now extends deep into the Middle East. At the very least, the arrangement raises concerns about nuclear proliferation in the region," it added.
According to the report, since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Pakistan has taken an unequivocal stance against Israel, repeatedly voicing its discontent at military action taken by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), both in Gaza and beyond. Similarly, Pakistan has used its platform at the United Nations to advocate for the creation of an Arab-Islamic task force to challenge Israel.
"For Islamabad, such an initiative would go some ways towards realising its long-term ambitions of adopting a greater role in the Middle East and the Islamic world more broadly. Reaching an agreement on a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia could mark the first step in establishing this broader defence organisation with allies in the Muslim world,” the report stressed.
It stated that although the Saudi–Pakistani defence pact may forge a new axis of cooperation, it also revives the nuclear question that has long troubled the West and now threatens to spill into the Middle East. For all of Riyadh’s strategic balancing and Islamabad’s pursuit of prestige, the implications for nuclear proliferation remain profound and potentially destabilising.
“Israel has demonstrated repeatedly that it will act preemptively when faced with what it views as existential threats, and there is little that can be done to deter it from doing so again if it perceives Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella extending toward the Arabian Peninsula. The coming years will determine whether this pact becomes a stabilising deterrent or the first spark in a dangerous new chapter of regional brinkmanship,” the report noted.
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