Pakistan Offers Saudi Arabia Nuclear Umbrella Under New Defence Agreement

Last Updated:September 19, 2025, 17:01 IST

Pakistan’s Khawaja Mohammad Asif confirmed its nuclear capability may be extended to Saudi Arabia under a new defence pact.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters Image)

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said the country’s nuclear programme “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed under the two nations’ new defence pact, marking the first explicit acknowledgment that Islamabad has extended its nuclear deterrent to Riyadh. Speaking to Geo TV, Khawaja Asif stressed the depth of the agreement signed this week between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which have shared close military ties for decades.

“Let me make one point clear about Pakistan’s nuclear capability: that capability was established long ago when we conducted tests. Since then, we have forces trained for the battlefield,” he said, adding, “What we have, and the capabilities we possess, will be made available to (Saudi Arabia) according to this agreement.”

The pact, signed this week, declares that an attack on one country would be treated as an attack on both. Neither Islamabad nor Riyadh has responded to questions about whether the agreement involves direct access to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Khawaja Asif’s comments, however, represent the most specific indication yet that Saudi Arabia has been placed under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.

The move sends a signal to Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed nation and comes days after an Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar killed six people, reigniting security concerns among Gulf Arab states as the Israel-Hamas war drags on in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia has long been tied to Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Retired Pakistani Brigadier General Feroz Hassan Khan previously said Riyadh provided “generous financial support to Pakistan that enabled the nuclear programme to continue, especially when the country was under sanctions.” Pakistan itself faced years of US sanctions over its pursuit of nuclear weapons, with additional penalties imposed over its ballistic missile work at the end of the Joe Biden administration.

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