Pakistan has been negotiating an expanded defence pact with Kuwait in exchange for energy cooperation and investment, according to five sources with knowledge of the talks.
The talks remain at an early stage, all the sources said, and could still be complicated by heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, said one source.
Reuters reported on Thursday that there were mounting concerns in Islamabad that its mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia, signed last year, could draw Pakistan into the US-Iran war., opens new tab After the Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched an attack on Saudi Arabia on Monday, nuclear-armed Pakistan told Iran it would treat attacks on the kingdom as attacks on itself.
Any defence deal with Kuwait, which has come under heavy attacks from Iran this year, would also raise questions about Pakistan’s role in future mediation between the U.S. and Iran.
Kuwait has had a more limited defence deal with Pakistan for training and joint exercises since 2023. It is now seeking a show of force by Islamabad that would be similar to Pakistan’s pact with Saudi Arabia, including “thousands of Pakistani troops on the ground, fighter jets, drones, an air defence system, and other defence-related facilities,” said a Pakistani government official.
It is unclear whether Pakistan is willing to go this far, given that its agreement with Saudi Arabia was the result of a decades-old close alliance with Riyadh.
“Kuwait’s wish list includes everything,” said a Pakistani security official with knowledge of the talks. “But let me be clear about one thing: We are not and we cannot consider a deployment of combat troops at this stage.”
A Middle Eastern source confirmed that Kuwait has been in conversations with Pakistan, including about defence procurement, but said it was “not clear this will amount to a defence pact per se.”
Reuters spoke to four Pakistani sources and one Middle Eastern source, none of whom was authorised to speak on the record.
Pakistan’s military media wing and Kuwait’s information ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
