Published on, Sept. 27 -- September 27, 2025 12:29 PM

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the recently signed Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defense agreement has "formalized" a decades-old military partnership that was previously "a bit transactional."

In an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan, Asif dismissed suggestions that the accord was a reaction to Israel's bombing of Qatar, stating that negotiations had been underway for some time and the events "may have only sped it up a bit."

On September 17, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement in Riyadh, pledging that any attack on either country would be treated as an act of aggression against both.

Asif r...