Pak-Saudi Defense Pact: Strategic Implications and Way Forward

Abstract

In September 2025, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan came into an agreement known as a Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement that made a declaration that aggression against one country should be treated as aggression against another one. This deal indicates a possibility of the U.S.-centric security assurances being replaced by a more independent and regional security order in the South Asian region and the Gulf by the Saudis. The paper is a qualitative analysis of SMDA implications, which concentrates on the military cooperation, nuclear deterrence, balance of power in the region, and economic integration. The secondary sources used in this research are policy-oriented think-tank report, news media and academic research. This paper explains the way SMDA can re-align Saudi security calculus, extend the strategic significance of Pakistan, and create possibilities and threats. Pakistan has always been one of the most competent states regionally, which can call adversaries to account in respect of any form of misadventure against it. The Israeli mishap in Qatari territory attracts the interest of Saudi Arabia and forced the country to sign an agreement with Pakistan. In addition, it will implicitly expand nuclear deterrence of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, affecting domestic power structures. The agreement may enhance lucrative and defense-artificial partnership. Its success will be based on its successful perpetration and how it will affect stability in South Asia and the Middle East.