Pakistan, Kuwait Explore Expanded Defense Pact Amid Regional Tensions

ISLAMABAD (GNP): Pakistan and Kuwait are in early talks over an expanded defense agreement that would be paired with energy cooperation and investment from Kuwait, according to five sources familiar with the negotiations cited by Reuters.

The discussions are still at a preliminary stage and could be knocked off course by rising tension between the United States and Iran, one of the sources said. Concerns have already surfaced in Islamabad that its existing mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia, signed last year, could pull Pakistan into a broader US-Iran conflict, particularly after Pakistan warned Iran it would treat any attack on Saudi Arabia as an attack on itself, following a Houthi strike on the kingdom earlier this week.

Kuwait, which has faced repeated attacks from Iran this year, has maintained a narrower defence arrangement with Pakistan since 2023 covering training and joint military exercises. Islamabad’s involvement in a broader deal now under discussion would also raise questions about Pakistan’s position in any future mediation between Washington and Tehran.

A Pakistani government official said Kuwait is now pushing for a much larger commitment, on the scale of Pakistan’s existing pact with Saudi Arabia, one that would include thousands of Pakistani troops stationed on Kuwaiti soil, along with fighter jets, drones, an air defence system and other military infrastructure. Whether Pakistan is prepared to go that far remains unclear, given that its arrangement with Riyadh grew out of a decades-old bilateral relationship.

A Pakistani security official involved in the talks was blunt about the limits of what Islamabad is willing to offer. “Kuwait’s wish list includes everything,” the official said, adding that deploying combat troops is off the table at this stage.

A source in the Middle East confirmed that Kuwait and Pakistan have held discussions, including on defence procurement, but cautioned that it remains uncertain whether the talks will produce a formal defence pact. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations and Kuwait’s information ministry have not responded to requests for comment.

Pakistan has spent the past year exploring new regional defence arrangements alongside Gulf states, which have grown increasingly cautious about depending solely on US security guarantees. With a large standing military and its own fighter jet production, Pakistan has positioned itself as a possible alternative or supplement to American protection in the region. A Middle East based source familiar with Kuwait’s security planning noted that Pakistan is viewed there as a reliable partner, citing its existing ties with Saudi Arabia, its long track record in defence development, its Sunni Muslim identity and its working relationship with the United States.

Beyond Kuwait, Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia have been drafting a separate mutual defence agreement distinct from the Pakistan Saudi pact already in place. Bahrain has also expressed interest in a similar arrangement, while Jordan is reportedly looking into a weapons and training deal, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

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For Islamabad, these defense talks are tied closely to its need for outside investment. As part of any eventual agreement with Kuwait, Pakistan is seeking cooperation on energy security, an objective that fits into a broader effort by its energy ministry to strengthen the country’s oil and fuel reserves. Kuwait, for its part, is reportedly considering a bonded fuel storage arrangement with Pakistan that would build on an existing government to government diesel supply agreement between the two countries.

Two sources said the energy and investment incentives on offer could still be enough to draw Pakistan toward a more substantial defense commitment, with negotiations expected to gain momentum once tensions between the US and Iran ease. Not everyone is convinced that will happen smoothly. Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, cautioned that Pakistan needs to be wary of overextending itself through these commitments.