Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have signed the landmark Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) that could reshape Middle Eastern security. The pact elevates decades of cooperation into a formal military alliance: any aggression against one country will be treated as an attack on both.

The signing ceremony, held at Al-Yamamah Palace on September 17, included symbolic gestures of solidarity such as Saudi Air Force jets escorting the Pakistani premier’s plane and a royal guard of honour.

The agreement comes at a moment of deep unease across the region. For decades, Gulf nations have relied on the US as their primary security guarantor, but Washington’s increasingly Israel-centric and unpredictable policies, evident more so now, have pushed many to reconsider their options. The urgency was sharpened by the September 9 Israeli airstrike in Doha, drawing widespread Arab condemnation and highlighting the fragility of existing security arrangements.

For Saudi Arabia, aligning militarily with Pakistan – the world’s only Muslim-majority nuclear power – is both a strategic calculation and a political statement. Riyadh signals that it is ready to diversify its security partnerships and strengthen deterrence in a region riven by proxy wars, nuclear anxieties and shifting allegiances. Pakistan brings a battle-hardened and well-organised military with........

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