Riyadh Pact Upgrades Pakistan-Saudi Military Relationship- Khawaja Asif

Islamabad: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said Riyadh Pact the recently signed Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defence pact has “formalised” a decades-old military relationship that was previously “a bit transactional.”

Speaking to journalist Mehdi Hasan in an interview for Zeteo, Asif emphasised that the agreement was not a reaction to the Israeli bombing of Qatar, but the result of ongoing negotiations. “Perhaps it must have sped it up a bit, but that is all. It was already in the offing,” he said.

On September 17, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement in Riyadh, pledging that any attack on either nation would be treated as an act of aggression against both.

Earlier, Asif had hinted that Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities could potentially be made available to Riyadh under the new framework. However, he later clarified that nuclear weapons were “not on the radar” for the accord.

During the Zeteo interview, Hasan pressed Asif on whether the pact effectively placed Saudi Arabia under Pakistan’s “nuclear umbrella.” Asif avoided a direct answer, instead highlighting the depth of existing cooperation.

“We have had a very long defence relationship with Saudi Arabia, spanning five or six decades. We had a military presence over there, perhaps more than four or five thousand at the peak, and we still have military presence over there. I think we have just formalised that relationship which was previously a bit transactional,” he said.

When asked again whether nuclear weapons were part of the deal, the minister declined to elaborate. “I will refrain from going into the details, but it’s a defence pact and defence pacts are normally not discussed publicly,” he remarked.

Hasan also referenced Bob Woodward’s 2024 book War, in which the Saudi crown prince was quoted as telling a US senator that he could “just buy” a bomb from Pakistan. Asif dismissed the claim as “sensationalised.”

“No, I don’t believe that quote,” he said, adding, “We are very responsible people.”