Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khwaja Asif has said that the recently signed strategic mutual defense agreement with Saudi Arabia has now formally given a formal form to the relationship between the two countries. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a strategic mutual defense agreement in Riyadh last week, stating that the attack on any country would be considered an act of attack against both.
Earlier, Asif suggested that Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities could be made available to Riyadh under the new structure. However, in an interview later, the minister denied that the nuclear weapons were part of the agreement and said that they were not on the agenda at all.
Pakistan only nuclear power in Muslim world
According to the news of the ‘Don’ newspaper, during an interview with ‘Jetio’, in response to a question by journalist Mehdi Hasan, Asif said, ‘What happened in Qatar is not a reaction, because it had been negotiating for a long time. So this is no response; Perhaps it must have been a little fast, but that’s all that it was already decided.
Hasan had asked Asif whether this agreement was a response to Israeli bombing on Qatar. Hasan said that Pakistan is the only nuclear power in the Muslim world and Saudi Arabia has shown interest in becoming a second nuclear power. He also told that Asif had earlier said that nuclear weapons are not being considered in this agreement. He asked, ‘Does Saudi Arabia get protection from Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella as per this agreement?’
Formal form given to transactions based relationship
Asif said, ‘Our defense relations with Saudi Arabia have been going on for five-six decades. There was our military presence there, perhaps at the peak, perhaps more than four-five thousand and even today we have military presence. I think we have given a formal form to that relationship, which was earlier some extent transaction based.
Hasan asked, ‘A formal form of nuclear weapons was given with or without nuclear weapons?’ The minister, however, refused to explain this in detail. He said, “I will refrain from explaining in detail, but this is a defense agreement and defense agreements are not usually discussed publicly.”
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