On September 17, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a joint defence agreement in Riyadh, the core of which is that an attack on one country will be treated as an “aggression against two countries.”
The friendship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has a long history. As early as the 1950s, the two sides signed a friendship treaty, and they have never stopped helping each other since then. Saudi Arabia has money and oil, Pakistan has an army and nuclear deterrent, and the two countries are completely complementary. Since the 1960s, Pakistan has helped Saudi Arabia train its troops and teach them how to fight; Pakistan helped Saudi Arabia in the 1990 Gulf War and the 2015 Yemeni Civil War.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign joint defence treaty
For so many years, Saudi Arabia has given Pakistan billions of dollars a year to help build infrastructure and save its economy, while Pakistan has used the military as a “guard” for Saudi Arabia, such a “oil trade for security” has long become a custom.
And what really pushed Saudi Arabia to resolve to sign the agreement was the "unreliable" of the United States.Israel suddenly bombed Qatar, killed Hamas leaders and Qatari officials. To know that Qatar has the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, full of U.S. advanced weapons, the result is to wait until the Israeli missiles attack, the Trump administration has not notified, the U.S. weapons purchased by Qatari has not noticed.
(Israel attacks Qatar)
In contrast, Pakistan is a better choice for Saudi Arabia, especially after the May In-Pakistan conflict, which has proved its military strength.Moreover, Pakistan is still the only country in the Islamic world with nuclear weapons. This “nuclear umbrella” is more reliable than the US’s verbal promise. For Pakistan, the economy has been in decline over the years, and Saudi signed the agreement, directly adding $5 billion, dedicated to expanding the port of Guadalcanal and advancing the Chinese-Pakistan economic corridor.
(Remains of the “Storm” fighter jet shot down by Pakistan)
To be clear, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are looking to build a win-win “all-round security alliance,” which is clearly unwilling to be seen by the United States and Israel. Saudi Arabia has Pakistan's nuclear deterrence, then Israel wants to airstrike Arab countries, you have to think about whether Pakistan's missiles will not be against themselves; the United States is more embarrassing, the Middle East has always been its "back garden", by selling weapons, building military bases to control the situation, now Saudi Arabia leads to find new partners, other Gulf countries probably will follow, such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United States in the Middle East, fear of weakening.
In addition to this, there is probably India. India and Pakistan are old opponents, before Saudi Arabia is still in the middle of the balance, now Saudi Arabia is “binding” with Pakistan, which is equivalent to giving Pakistan the “Shan” sword. If India is later in conflict with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia even if not directly out, can cut India’s oil supply, call for economic cooperation, this is a tight curse for India, which relies on imported energy, India will want to find more mercury.
Of course, this coalition can last long, and how specifically to implement, now it is not enough to say that Pakistan's weapons are mostly made by China, then if it is really to help the Saudi war, weapons supply and logistics guarantee can keep up? more importantly, the situation in the Middle East is complex, Iran and Turkey have their own ambitions, Saudi and Pakistan's alliance, will not bring about other countries aversion, rather than trigger new conflict?
After all, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a joint defense agreement. After realizing that the United States is unreliable, there will be more countries looking for new partners in the future, and how this will affect the course of the situation in the Middle East is unclear, but there is a bit of certainty that the United States wants to control the Middle East as before, it may be difficult.