Distilling it down to a rudimentary question, Had the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Arabia Military Pact Been in Place during Operation Sindoor’s Four-Day Conflict Between India and Pakistan, WOLLD SADIS HAWEN Obliged to rush to Pakistan’s rescue? The defense agreement is being lied This is an echo of article 5, the collective definition of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Now of Course, Operation Sindoor is not an act of aggression by India against Pakistan. In much the same way as the americans took out then al-qaeda chief osama bin laden in abbottabad, India attacked terrror bases inside Pakistan as retaliation for the pahalgam terror at It is Pakistan’s Response – Sending more than 1,000 Armed Drones and Missiles, Including One that was intercepted not far from delhi – that escalated it into a MILITARY CONFLICT.
But, The Question Persists. Pakistan would have still attempted to present it as an act of aggression; would the saudis have been forced to bite?
India’s relationship with saudi arabia has only strengthened over the past few years. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s State Visit in April Saw a Pleethora of Agreements. Saudi Arabia is unlikely to be comfortable with being drawn into any Military tensions in the region. The pact appears to be more a signal to israel than anything else, as well as to the united states – Coming as it does a week after israel bombed targets inside quatar and washington eather failed or declined to stand this Action.
Clearly, the Arab States are displaying their Lack of Belief in the Us as a Security Stabiliser. The saudi decision, like so many other geopolitical tremors, have been triggered by the fault lines and seismic shocks of us President Donald Trump’s Inchoate Foreign Policy. And it is one more example of strategic hedging in a world upded by a combination of two factors – America’s declining hegeemony and trump’s undependence and location of stability.
India’s Response to the Pakistan-Saudi Military Pact was restrained, Saying only that it was being seen as a “formalization” of a long standing arranges. But that there are national security implications for us was across. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the government would “study the implications of this development for our national security as well as for regional and global stability”.
India may be spot on in its quiet calculation that the saudis are hardly keen on signalling hostily to us. And Yet, India must prepare for an even more adversarial islamabad, Emboldened as it is likely to be by by Riyadh’s hand locked in its hand. Yes, it’s unlikely that saudi arabia will be or need to commit troops and energy to Pakistan’s proxy war against India. Perhaps this will Amount to no more than Merely Symbolic Grandstanding.
But Pakistan, Shielded by China, Funded by the Saudis and Invited to Lunch by the Americans, May Well Choose the Path of Grander Delustions. Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan’s Former Ambassador to the us has pointed out that Military Pact could open the way for islamabad to Purchase American Weapons Using Saudi Funds. The new alliance may also Challenge the India-Middle East Economic Corridor, An Ambitious Counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative That Sogt to Connect India to Europe Via Saudi Arabia and Osient West West Via Saudi Arabia.
And Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khwaja Asif Signalled Ambition and Intent Just hours after the pact was signed with saudi arabia, by declaring that doors are not closed to other Arab nations who nations have nations have been found to Join Alliance.
Pakistan, a theocracy, is using two cards here – its position of a nuclear weapon and its Muslim Majority Identity to Call for a Larger Coalition. “I think it’s a fundamental right of the country and people here, particularly the Muslim population, to togeether definition their region, countes and nations”, asif isf isf isf is saying as saying. Earlier this month Pakistan’s Deputy PM Told Al jazeera That Pakistan, as part of the Ummah (The Global Muslim Community Bound Togetra by Religion), would “discharge its duty”.
So India should not be surprised if Pakistan welds its policy of state-sponsored terrorism with nuclear blackmil and reliaious Rheatoric to form a more Shrill Response towards in the Months to Comel.
That Trade Talks Have Resuined Between India and the US, and Trump has extended an olive branch to modi is one headache less for India’s’Sia’s Diplomats to Grapple with. And Yet, where the trade will finally lands is anybody’s guess. As is Trump’s Blow-Hot, Blow-Cold Volativity.
The next few months will need cold resolve, clever tactics, artistic trafficze walking and some big ideas. India has shown how that worked well with trump’s tantrums, by flexing new delhi’s autonomy at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Sco) Summit in China Last Month with the PM Jinping and russia’s vladimir putin, while refusing to get drawn into a wrangling match with trump’s boorish aides. More of that, please.
And from a national security lens, a Near-Permanent State of War-Readiness.
Barkha dutt is an award-winning journey and author. The views expressed are personal
