Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday made a significant announcement on the recent defence pact signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He stated that Pakistan’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed under the countries’ new deal. With this statement, Pakistan has formally acknowledged its willingness to extend its nuclear umbrella to the Gulf country.
Pakistan confirms nuclear program will be available to Saudi Arabia under new defence pact, reported Saudi Gazette. Asif made the comment during an interview with Geo TV, in response to a question on whether “the deterrence that Pakistan gets from nuclear weapons” will be made available to Saudi Arabia.
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What did Pak Defence Minister say?
“Let me make one point clear about Pakistan’s nuclear capability: that capability was established long ago when we conducted tests. Since then, we have forces trained for the battlefield,” Asif said, as reported by AP. “What we have, and the capabilities we possess, will be made available to (Saudi Arabia) according to this agreement,” he added. However, in a separate interview to Reuters, Asif denied that nuclear weapons were part of the accord, calling them "not on the radar,” reported Dawn News.
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Notably, a pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan was signed on Wednesday, which declared that an attack on one nation would be an attack on both. However, Asif stated that the “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” with Saudi Arabia is 'defensive' rather than 'offensive' arrangement', drawing parallels with NATO. “If there is aggression, whether against Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, we will jointly defend against it," he told Geo TV.
Whether Pakistan will actually make its nuclear program available to Saudi Arabia remains to be seen with time. The move is interpreted as a signal to Israel, who has been the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons. The recent attack by Israel on Hamas leaders in Qatar had concerned Gulf Arab nations about their safety. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said had rejected and condemned Israeli attacks in the region, including the “brutal aggression” against Qatar. “We will stand with Qatar without limit in all its actions, and we will harness all our capabilities to achieve this,” the prince said.
“We also condemn the continued brutal attacks against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the persistence of the crimes of starvation and forced displacement,” he added, declaring his stance on Israel-Palestine conflict.
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