Rafiq Dossani
The mutual defense pact signed this month between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has largely been interpreted as Riyadh’s attempt to secure access to nuclear deterrence, hedging against the possibility of an Israeli strike. But who else is it important to? Western media attention has focused on Israel and the United States as involuntary stakeholders.
For Riyadh, Pakistan has long been just a client state—to be bailed out financially in moments of crisis on the grounds of Muslim brotherhood. That Saudi Arabia is now seeking security support from Islamabad reflects a significant shift: the kingdom, shaken by Israel’s strike on Qatar, appears more willing to treat Pakistan as a partner rather than a dependent.
It is doubtful that Riyadh and Islamabad acted without Washington’s knowledge. Even so, the United States has little incentive to pick sides. Israel has already demonstrated its independence by striking Qatar despite American concerns. Iran’s nuclear program is in disarray and unlikely to be affected by the Saudi-Pakistan agreement. For Washington, the agreement offers neither leverage nor a significant policy pivot.
Under the new defense pact, any renewed Indian military operation against Pakistan could now be interpreted as an attack on Saudi Arabia.
But there are others. What has received little attention is the impact on India. Over the past decade, New Delhi has cultivated a strategic partnership with Riyadh. Military cooperation has expanded, with the two countries conducting joint exercises as recently as August 2025. In 2023, India and Saudi Arabia joined the United States, the European Union, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates in an initiative, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, to build a land-and-sea transport corridor linking India to Europe via the Gulf and Israel. The relationship is also solidly grounded in economics: in 2024, Indian workers in Saudi Arabia remitted $7 billion to India, remittances constituting an important contribution to India that dates to the 1970s. Currently, over 2.5 million Indians work in Saudi Arabia.
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