After Pakistan’s first nuclear test in 1998 landed it under international sanctions and diplomatic isolation, the country sought the help of its longtime ally, Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s Riyadh Ambassador Khalid Mahmoud has called for an urgent meeting with King Fahad bin Abdulziz. The Saudi monarch opposed the test, but even so, “I have vowed to support you more than you would expect,” Mahmoud said. The next day, Pakistan was promised $3.4 billion in Saudi Arabia’s financial support. This is the funds that helped Islamabad proceed with the second nuclear test, the ambassador said.
That moment helped shape the role of Pakistan as the de facto nuclear shield of the kingdom in the eyes of many.
So when Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defense agreement on Wednesday, it reignited speculation about whether Riyadh could now formally fall under the Islamabad nuclear umbrella. “This is a comprehensive defence agreement that includes all military measures,” a Saudi official told Reuters.
According to Jamal Al-Harbi, Media Attache of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Islamabad, the deal includes defence industry collaboration, technology transfer and military co-production. Written in Arab News Pakistan, an outlet linked to the Saudi Arabian province, he added that “capacity building and training” is also part of the agreement.
A senior Saudi Arabian official said the deal was “year” but the timing is our allies just a week after the unprecedented Israeli attack on neighboring Qatar, suggesting that Riyadh is stepping up its defenses beyond Washington, decades after its almost reliant on American protection.
During Donald Trump’s first term, Gulf Arab countries wanted him to become the US president who truly appreciated their security concerns and acted decisively to protect them. His first term initially appeared to be promising: he withdraws from Iran’s nuclear deal, and his administration ordered the assassination of Iran’s powerful general, Qassem Soleimani.
But in the end, the Gulf countries were disappointed. In 2019, when missile and drone strikes against Saudi oil facilities widely denounced Iran, knocking out half of the kingdom’s oil production and surged crude oil prices, his administration responded with only a stifled accusation.
As regional tensions escalated, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates sought for formal American security guarantees. After failing to secure it from the Biden administration, the Saudi Crown Prince issued a clear warning that the kingdom’s patience with Washington may be weakened. In an interview with Fox News in September 2023, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that Riyadh “can move their armaments from America to another location. He said that strong Arabia in Saudi Arabia means strong America. “You don’t want it to be shifted.”
When Trump returned to the White House, Saudi Arabia placed new hope for him.
Riyadh deployed a purple royal carpet for him during his first international trip of his second term. However, the defense agreement that Riyadh is seeking has not yet been realized.
During the same trip, Trump made a public pledge to “protect” Qatar. This is after Gulf countries committed trillions of dollars on the US economy. However, he caused the first-ever direct Iranian strike against the Gulf state, and within months he was unable to prevent Israel’s first strike.
Qatar hosts at Aludedid Air Force Base, the largest US military base in the Middle East, have long been seen as deterrent.
But this year, we have revealed the limits of its protection, and even the limits of Washington as a whole. When Iran targeted it in June, the base was responsible and retaliated for a US strike against Iran’s nuclear facility. And this month it proved ineffective in deterring Israel’s strikes targeting Hamas in Qatar. For all its strategic weight, it suggests that the footprints of the US military in the Gulf could no longer function as a once thought shield.
