Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif signed a historic defense agreement on Wednesday (17 September 2025), named Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement. The main condition of this agreement is that if one of the Saudi Arabia or Pakistan is attacked, it will be considered an attack on both countries. That is, both countries will protect each other under shared security.
On the matter, American expert Michael Kulegmen said that it is not just a defense agreement but a strategic message. Pakistan now stands with three big colleagues like China, Turki and Saudi Arabia. However, it is difficult to say that it will stop India from attacking Pakistan. At the same time, West Asia affairs expert Jahak Tanveer says that Pak -Sudi Defense Agreements are not new, even before. In the past, these agreements have been mostly focused on Saudi security, but not on Pakistan. Pakistan’s army has been called the army of fare of Saudi interests many times. However, the possibility of direct military cooperation against India is extremely low.
Historical relations of Pakistan-Saudi Arabia
Pakistan-Saudi Arabia’s relationship is quite old. During the year 1980-88, Pakistan assured Saudi security in the Iran-Iraq War. In 2014-15, Saudi formed an Islamic military alliance, in which the leadership was handed over to former Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif. Saudi provided financial and diplomatic assistance to Pakistan in the Indo -Pak wars (1965, 1971, Kargil 1999), but did not send the army directly to the Indian front.
Impact on India -Saudi relations
Saudi Arabia never supported terrorism against India. India and Saudi have strong strategic and economic relations (Energy Business, Overseas Indian, Investment). The Saudi official has clearly stated that relations with India will remain strong and contribution to regional peace will continue. India’s Foreign Ministry said, “We are monitoring this agreement and will look at it in terms of global and regional security.”