‘Keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities’: India’s response to Saudi-Pakistan defence pact

India on Friday reaffirmed its strong and growing strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia in response to the recent defence agreement between Riyadh and Islamabad, saying it expects the relationship to reflect “mutual interests and sensitivities”.

#WATCH | On the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan Agreement, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, “India and Saudi Arabia have a wide-ranging strategic partnership which has deepened considerably in the last several years. We expect that this strategic partnership will keep in mind mutual… pic.twitter.com/qxoTg3XzN2

— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2025

“India and Saudi Arabia have a wide-ranging strategic partnership which has deepened considerably in the last several years. We expect that this strategic partnership will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly press briefing.

Saudi Arabia’s influential Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday signed the agreement  with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

While the pact does not explicitly mention nuclear weapons, it includes a strong security clause stating that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” according to statements released by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry and the Saudi Press Agency.

“This agreement … aims to develop aspects of defense cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” the statement said.

The agreement comes in the wake of Israel’s strike on Hamas leadership in Qatar last week.

The timing of the pact appeared to be a signal to Israel, long suspected to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, which has conducted a sprawling military offensive since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel stretching across Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Syria and Yemen.

The pact marks the first major defence decision by a Gulf Arab country since the Qatar attack.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a defense relationship stretching back decades, in part due to Islamabad’s willingness to defend the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina in the kingdom. Pakistani troops first traveled to Saudi Arabia in the late 1960s over concerns about Egypt’s war in Yemen at the time.

Those ties increased after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the kingdom’s fears of a confrontation with Tehran.

Pakistan developed its nuclear weapons programme to counter India’s atomic bombs. The two neighbours have fought multiple wars against each other and again came close to open warfare after an attack on tourists in April in Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

India is believed to have an estimated 172 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan has 170, according to the US-published Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

With inputs from agencies