More pacts than results: Pakistan’s expanding defence partnerships under scrutiny

Jerusalem, Oct 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Pakistan’s efforts to establish a central role in an emerging network of defence partnerships among Muslim-majority nations, stretching from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia, have brought its strategic ambitions under scrutiny, a report has stated.

It noted that Islamabad faces questions over how it will accommodate competing ideological influences, navigate the conflicting interests of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and sustain its expanding commitments with limited economic, industrial and military resources.

“Pakistan has discovered a new enthusiasm for defence alliances. On October 21, Islamabad joined Turkey, Qatar and Indonesia in signing the Badr Memorandum of Understanding in Doha, an agreement intended to strengthen military production, technological cooperation, training and defence industrial capabilities. The announcement follows the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed in August between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which established a considerably more ambitious framework for mutual military assistance,” Sergio Restelli, an Italian political advisor, author and geopolitical expert, wrote in ‘The Times of Israel'.

According to Restelli, the primary concern is not that defence ties inevitably lead to ideological alignment, but that an expanding web of military partnerships could open the door to political influence, institutional infiltration and the gradual legitimisation of actors whose agendas may undermine regional stability.

“The distinction between legitimate defence industrial cooperation and political alignment must therefore remain central to any assessment of the Badr agreement,” he stated.

Highlighting the more immediate nature of the challenge, Restelli noted that Pakistan is seeking to strengthen its defence ties with Qatar while positioning itself as a key pillar of the Saudi-led security framework established under the Mecca agreement.

“Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a long history of strategic rivalry. The 2017 Gulf crisis, when Riyadh and its allies imposed a blockade on Doha, exposed profound disagreements over political Islam, relations with Iran and the regional role of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the Al-Ula reconciliation of 2021 restored diplomatic relations, it did not eliminate the underlying differences in their foreign policy outlooks,” the expert mentioned.

“For Pakistan, this creates an obvious contradiction. The Mecca agreement is intended to establish a credible framework of collective deterrence. Its provisions contemplate military assistance in the event of an attack on a member, although the nature and extent of that assistance remain subject to national decisions. Yet Islamabad is simultaneously strengthening another defence arrangement with Qatar, whose strategic calculations have not always coincided with those of Riyadh,” he added.

Pakistan is seeking to position itself at the crossroads of all these interests while portraying the resulting network of partnerships as evidence of its growing strategic importance. However, alliances are not accomplishments in themselves; their significance depends on the security they provide, the threats they deter and the capabilities they help develop, Restelli argued.

“For now, Islamabad has considerably more agreements to display than results to demonstrate. And in its eagerness to appear indispensable to everyone, Pakistan may be stretching itself too thin to be genuinely indispensable to anyone,” he noted.

Source: IANS