ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will “always” come to Saudi Arabia’s assistance if the Kingdom’s sovereignty or territorial integrity is threatened, Islamabad’s ambassador to the Kingdom said on Sunday.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif traveled to the Kingdom on March 12, along with country’s powerful Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Asim Munir, to discuss the regional situation with the Saudi leadership, following US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s counterattacks on Gulf countries.
The meeting came months after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA), under which the two countries pledged that aggression against one would be treated as attack on both. The move was widely viewed as formalization of longstanding military cooperation into a binding commitment.
Sharif’s office said the prime minister and the CDF held a “restricted meeting” with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah and assured the Kingdom of Pakistan’s “full solidarity and support,” amid Tehran’s attacks on US bases as well as commercial and oil infrastructure in Gulf countries.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif undertook a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The visit was driven by the, you know, conflict which has broken out in this region,” Islamabad’s ambassador to the Kingdom, Ahmad Farooq, told Arab News in an interview on Sunday.
“The leadership of Pakistan has conveyed its full solidarity to the leadership of the Kingdom, in terms of our support to them.”
Farooq said that defense ties between Islamabad and Riyadh go back several decades and have long been a key pillar of their relationship.
“Pakistan always has this principled position in its foreign policy that it will always come to the assistance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when its sovereignty and territorial integrity is at threat,” he noted. “We have done it in the past.”
Sharif’s visit to the Kingdom was aimed at preventing the conflict from spreading further across the region, according to the Pakistani envoy.
“Obviously, Iran is the main focus of the conflict, but at the same time, you know, the fallout has been also on the other regional countries, which includes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“And that was the main purpose to focus on what can be done to, you know, end this conflict.”
The ambassador said the defense pact, signed in Sept. last year, has essentially formalized the longstanding defense understanding between the two countries.
“This agreement offers the space to both countries to discuss, you know, options that can be taken, actions that can be taken for, you know, strengthening their mutual defense,” he added.
Asked if Pakistan could deploy troops or military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the ambassador said:
“These are basically technical discussions that are, you know, take [place] between the military authorities of both countries,” he told Arab News.
To a question if Islamabad had conveyed any message to Iran under the current circumstances, Farooq emphasized that Islamabad favors diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from escalating further.
“The leadership of Pakistan has engaged right from the beginning of this conflict. The conflict started on the 28th of February and the prime minister of Pakistan on the same day had a telephone call with His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman). In recent days, he has also had a conversation with the president of Iran,” the ambassador said.
“Our message here to all the countries in this region is that we have to prevent an escalation of this conflict. And that can only happen when we respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other. We abide by the international law and the Charter of the United Nations. And the only way out for any issues that have caused the conflict is to engage in dialogue.”
