Pakistan-Saudi defence pact — How Islamabad can export uncertainty, crisis in neighbourhood and beyond

Washington, Jan 10 (LatestNewsX) Highlighting the new security partnership between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, a report has highlighted the risk of Islamabad not only extending military cooperation but also exporting uncertainty and crisis resulting from decisions shaped by internal power struggles.

Last September, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia reportedly signed a strategic mutual defence pact, pledging to support one another should either face aggression from a third party.

However, the new security partnership — likely including a nuclear deterrent for Riyadh — illustrates the mercenary nature of Islamabad’s foreign policy, Natiq Malikzada, a journalist and human rights advocate from Afghanistan, wrote in Washington-based award-winning online publication ‘The National Interest’.

“If Pakistan turns its nuclear policy into a bargaining tool for regional influence, it leads to consequences that it cannot fully control. For a country to be a security guarantor, it typically requires stability and a well-functioning system of governance. Pakistan does not have these characteristics at present. Accordingly, its internal crisis has become a regional matter of concern,” the analyst spotlighted.

“Pakistan has struggled for years with violence and insurgency, particularly by Islamist ideological movements it formerly supported for short-term political ends in neighbouring Afghanistan and subsequently lost control over. Now that Pakistan, with such internal security fractures, sells itself as a regional security provider — particularly in the realm of nuclear capability — the risk is that it also exports uncertainty and crisis resulting from decisions shaped by internal power struggles,” wrote Malikzada.

The National Interest details how the Pakistani military leadership not only wants Saudi Arabia to be at least somewhat dependent on Islamabad but its Generals making attempts to become the guardians of a wider Islamic security order.

However, Malikzada wondered that, in the event of a future crisis, which country will hold the steering wheel?

“In Pakistan, although nominal decision-making power is in the hands of the Prime Minister and his cabinet, it is well-known that the military plays an outsized role in the country’s politics and in practice can overthrow civilian leaders at any time. When fewer people have the power to plan and implement important security decisions, any crisis escalation becomes easier, and diplomacy becomes thinner. In that structure, even a minor incident can quickly turn into a reputation test, because unelected leaders often fear that restraint will be read as weakness both at home and by rivals abroad.”

With Pakistan reportedly striking a weapons deal with Libya, the author mentions that Islamabad’s diplomatic moves go far beyond established governments in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“While Pakistan’s sale of arms clearly violated the UN arms embargo, Islamabad reasoned that it would not be held accountable for the breach, and signaled its willingness to treat arms exports as geopolitical positioning regardless of the customer,” the author reflected.

/as