00:00Will Saudi Arabia attack India if Pakistan and India go to war after the Defense Pact?
00:04The Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement read,
00:06Any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.
00:10While proponents of the agreement called it Pakistan's geopolitical checkmate,
00:13experts argue that Pakistan's ambitions may not align with Saudi Arabia's priorities.
00:18This is what a Saudi official told Reuters,
00:20Our relationship with India is more robust than it has ever been.
00:23We will continue to grow this relationship.
00:25From 2006's Delhi Declaration to 2010's Riyadh Declaration,
00:28India and Saudi Arabia have been grounded in energy security and economic investment.
00:33New Delhi is the second largest trading partner for Riyadh.
00:36In financial year 2024-25, the bilateral trade stood at $41.88 billion.
00:41On the other hand, the trade between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is barely $3-4 billion.
00:46India and Saudi Arabia, we have a wide-ranging strategic partnership.
00:52Then why this NATO-like agreement?
00:54Experts suggest that this agreement serves Saudi Arabia's interests far more than Pakistan's.
00:59Pakistan is not only the world's only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority nation,
01:03but also feels the Islamic world's largest army.
01:05According to reports, Saudi Arabia has for years signaled its interest in Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
01:11This agreement comes just days after Israel's September 9 attack on Qatar,
01:15a move that has left Arab nations deeply alarmed.
01:17The pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan is seen as a deterrent to Israel,
01:21reportedly the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East.
01:24Experts believe that this agreement is more about Israel
01:26rather than providing Pakistan a guaranteed shield against India.
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