India, Sept. 19 -- Pakistan's defence minister, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, said late Thursday that Islamabad's nuclear program "will be made available" to Saudi Arabia if needed under the new defence pact between both nations.

This is the first time that Pakistan has acknowledged that Saudi Arabia was now under its nuclear umbrella.

Speaking to Geo TV in an interview, Asif was asked whether "the deterrence that Pakistan gets from nuclear weapons" will be made available to Saudi Arabia.

"Let me make one point clear about Pakistan's nuclear capability: that capability was established long ago when we conducted tests. Since then, we have forces trained for the battlefield. What we have, and the capabilities we possess, will be made available t...