Pakistan’s defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye is based on “collective deterrence” and carries no regional aspirations or offensive intent, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said during his interview with Al-Arabiya, while stressing that the pact is complementary to the three countries’ existing international relationships.
Chaudhry stressed that the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement (MJDA) was defensive rather than an instrument for broader regional competition.
“A simple plain reading of the agreement that was made public by the three governments, it tells very well that it is based on collective deterrence,” he said.
“It’s got no offensive, no interference, no aggressive element about it, purely defensive in nature,” he added.
Asked whether the arrangement represented the beginning of a broader strategic alliance, Chaudhry again emphasised its defensive character.
“It is defensive. As the word also implies, it is defensive. There’s nothing, there’s nothing aggressive,” he said.
“There are no regional aspirations. It is a collective deterrence,” he added.
According to Chaudhry, the pact would also not undermine the three countries’ existing partnerships with other states and alliances.
“It is complementary,” he said. “Because all these countries have got their own independent, military-to-military relations, independent relations with other alliances, with other countries, with other blocks, or whatever.”
“This mutual defense agreement is complementary in nature. It is not competing with any other relationship of these, all these countries with each other,” he said.
Pakistan’s position towards Iran
Asked whether the new defence relationship could complicate Pakistan’s position towards Iran, Chaudhry rejected the suggestion.
“I don’t think, not at all,” he said, describing the agreement as the product of decades-old strategic ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and between Pakistan and Türkiye.
“It is based on decades-old strategic relationship between the countries,” he said.
Chaudhry said Pakistan’s relationships with both Saudi Arabia and Türkiye extended beyond military cooperation.
“These relationships that Pakistan has with both these countries are special,” he said. “They are based on people-to-people relationship. There is an emotional connection, there is a cultural connection, there is a government-to-government, a military connection which spans over decades.”
He described the new arrangement as “a formalisation of these strategic relationship in a peculiar environment.”
Pakistan’s mediation role
Chaudhry also defended Pakistan’s role as a mediator between Tehran and Washington, saying Islamabad had taken on the role in pursuit of regional peace.
“For peace. For regional peace. Because stability stems from peace,” he said when asked why Pakistan had chosen to mediate.
“Pakistan is a big proponent of peace in the region and in the area,” he added.
Chaudhry said Pakistan’s foreign policy of maintaining multiple partnerships gave it a distinctive position from which to facilitate dialogue.
“Pakistan, I think, also has the unique position because of its policy of multi-alignment and multi-engagement with all the friendly countries around the world, that it can act as an objective arbiter of peace,” he said.
Asked whether the defence pact contained a mutual defence obligation, Chaudhry referred to the text made public by the leadership of the three countries, but the provided portion of the interview ends before his answer is completed.
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