Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defence pact tests India’s Gulf outreach

When Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a mutual defence agreement earlier this month, it was widely interpreted as a gesture of Muslim unity in a region roiled by crisis.

But its reverberations are already being felt among policymakers in Pakistan’s perennial rival India, threatening to complicate New Delhi’s delicate diplomatic balancing act in the Gulf.

The agreement, signed in Riyadh on September 17, declares that aggression against either signatory “shall be considered aggression against both”.