Saudi pact puts Pak's nuclear umbrella into W Asia security picture

With many Arab nations feeling a rising threat from Israel, the Saudi-Pakistan defense pact announced this week brings Pakistan —and its nuclear umbrella — into the region’s security equation.

- REUTERS

The “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday effectively marries Riyadh’s money with Pakistan's giant nuclear-armed military, analysts said. Few details of the pact have been disclosed, and Pakistan’s stated nuclear doctrine says that its weapons are solely aimed against long-term adversary India.

But Riyadh is hinting that it will have a de facto nuclear shield under the agreement, while analysts say that Israel, widely understood to be the only nuclear state in the West Asia, will be watching closely.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters that nuclear weapons were “not on the radar” of the pact. He said the agreement could be extended to cover other Gulf nations.