In a move that has sent ripples across the Middle East and beyond, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have signed a landmark mutual defense pact, pledging that any attack on either nation will be treated as an attack on both. The agreement, inked on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, in Riyadh, brings together Saudi Arabia’s vast financial resources and Pakistan’s formidable, nuclear-armed military. While the pact’s full text stops short of mentioning nuclear weapons outright, analysts and officials alike are openly speculating about its implications for the region’s precarious security balance—especially in the wake of recent Israeli military actions and ongoing tensions with Iran.
The deal was formalized by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to statements from Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Saudi Press Agency, the agreement “aims to develop aspects of defense cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression.” The language is clear: “Any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”
It’s a bold step, and the timing is no accident. The pact comes just days after Israel’s unprecedented strike on Qatar—a move that has left many Arab states feeling increasingly vulnerable. Saudi Arabia, long a key player in the region’s security calculus, appears to be recalibrating its alliances and deterrence strategies, particularly as faith in traditional U.S. security guarantees wanes. As Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East policy at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Financial Times, “From the Saudi perspective, the goal is to compensate for the strategic and conventional deterrence deficit in relation to nuclear-armed Israel.”
The question on everyone’s mind: Does this pact effectively extend Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella over Saudi Arabia? Officially, Pakistani doctrine maintains that its nuclear arsenal—about 170 warheads, nearly matching India’s estimated 172—is intended solely as a deterrent against its historical rival, India. Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif was quick to clarify, “We have no intention of using this pact for any aggression. But if the parties are threatened, then this arrangement will, of course, be activated.” He added that nuclear weapons “are not on the radar” of the agreement, though he didn’t rule out their involvement if circumstances escalate.
On the Saudi side, hints have been less ambiguous. A senior Saudi official, speaking anonymously to The Financial Times, described the pact as “a comprehensive defense agreement that covers all military assets.” When pressed on whether this included nuclear deterrence, the official simply said the deal “will utilize all defensive and military means deemed necessary depending on the specific threat.” It’s a statement that leaves plenty of room for interpretation—and for concern.
The defense relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is hardly new. Pakistani troops first deployed to the kingdom in the late 1960s to help protect the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina, and their cooperation only deepened after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Saudi Arabia has long provided generous financial support to Islamabad, including a recent $3 billion loan, and reportedly helped fund Pakistan’s nuclear program during its formative years. As retired Brigadier General Feroz Hassan Khan noted in his book Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb, “Saudi Arabia provided generous financial support to Pakistan that enabled the nuclear program to continue, especially when the country was under sanctions.”
For Pakistan, the benefits are clear. The country’s economy is under strain, and its defense budget pales in comparison to India’s, which is at least seven times larger. “Pakistan has military capability, and in return, what we get is economic strengthening,” said Mushahid Hussain, former chairman of the defense committee of Pakistan’s Senate, to AP. “Pakistan is a new strategic option for these Gulf states.”
But the pact’s ramifications are not confined to the Arabian Peninsula. India, which has fought three major wars with Pakistan and recently engaged in the heaviest border fighting in decades, is watching closely. On Thursday, September 18, 2025, India’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged the agreement, stating it “will study the implications of this development for our national security as well as for regional and global stability.”
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, has so far remained silent on the development. Yet, as Adil Sultan, dean of the Faculty of Aerospace and Strategic Studies at the Islamic University in Islamabad, told AP, “Israel has never felt comfortable with Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. But that capability is very modest and intended only for India.” Still, Pakistan’s longest-range missiles, developed in the late 1990s, could theoretically reach Israel if ever redirected.
The deal also raises questions for Iran, which has been locked in a tense rivalry with both Saudi Arabia and Israel over its own nuclear ambitions. Notably, just before the signing of the defense pact, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani visited Saudi Arabia—perhaps as a diplomatic heads-up. Saudi Arabia, while a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, has made it clear that it would pursue nuclear weapons if Iran were to acquire them. The kingdom already possesses a domestic ballistic missile program, a potential delivery system for nuclear arms.
The United States, for its part, has yet to respond officially. American influence in the region has been tested in recent years, with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states seeking to diversify their security partnerships. “Events have shown the limitations of relying solely on external protection, especially from the U.S.,” said Abdulaziz Sager, president of the Saudi Gulf Research Center, to AP. Former U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad also weighed in, warning on X that “Pakistan has nuclear weapons and delivery systems that can hit targets across the Middle East, including Israel. It also is developing systems that can reach targets in the U.S.”
Despite the nuclear undertones, some Pakistani analysts insist the country’s conventional military capabilities are more than sufficient to defend Saudi Arabia. “Pakistan is more than confident that its conventional capability is adequate,” said Islamabad-based security analyst Syed Muhammad Ali. “Pakistan’s military ... is adequate enough to improve the security of Saudi Arabia without having to resort to the nuclear option.” Notably, Pakistan’s National Command Authority, which oversees its atomic arsenal, has made no public statement regarding the pact as of September 18, 2025.
Saudi Arabia’s stance toward Israel remains unchanged. The kingdom has condemned Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the territory. Riyadh has also reiterated it will not normalize relations with Israel until the war in Gaza ends and a credible path to Palestinian statehood is established.
The Saudi-Pakistan defense pact marks a significant realignment in the Middle East’s security architecture. With rising distrust of traditional Western guarantees, the merging of Saudi financial power and Pakistani military might—nuclear or not—signals a new era of regional deterrence and cooperation. Whether this will stabilize or further complicate an already volatile region remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the stakes have never been higher.