Pakistan-Saudi Arabia mutual defense pact: News & Discussion

Two things are the utmost importance for Pakistan and Saudia to build a true future force:

1) 5th gen stealth platform that's their own. Developed between Pakistan and KSA with full TOT. An engine is a part of the deal, not separate.

2) Second strike capability in the shape of a couple of nuclear attack subs. These will be 1000% operated by Pakistan. But will play a huge role in maintaining a sea based offensive capability as a deterrence.
And, Pakistan should build a mirror military industrial complex deep inside the KSA and store some of her strategic assets there including jets. It'll give her a strategic depth. Ops Indoor (rat), Bandor (monkey) etc. show it's required.....
 
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And, Pakistan should build a mirror military industrial complex deep inside the KSA and store some her strategic assets there including jets. It'll give her a strategic depth. Ops Indoor (rat), Bandor (monkey) etc. show it's required.....

The strategic depth issue with this pact is taken care of. We'll have dedicated airbases given to us.

The real solution to our strategic depth issue is nuclear missile attack submarines for second strike capability. Whenever those can come in, would solve that issue.
 
The strategic depth issue with this pact is taken care of. We'll have dedicated airbases given to us.

The real solution to our strategic depth issue is nuclear missile attack submarines for second strike capability. Whenever those can come in, would solve that issue.
Thanks to Netanyahu & Modi and to a great extent President Trump, nothing is now off the table.....
 
Thanks to Netanyahu & Modi and to a great extent President Trump, nothing is now off the table.....

Indeed. It's divine help. In April, JUST 5 months ago, the entire world on Pakistan had a totally different view. And here we are, in just 5 months after, the entire landscape globally has shifted to accept Pakistan as a regional power.

Today, a top and one of the most senior Indian journalists said "it's amazing to see ALL 3 great powers, USA, China and Russia, despite being enemies, are all together on one point, maintaining a strategic relationship with Pakistan".

If you just think about it, his statement is VERY deep. How has Pakistan played it's card and with divine help that bitter enemies agree on ONE point, that they want good, strategic relations with Pakistan!! We are the chosen one's and we should be thankful to the Almighty.
 
Indeed. It's divine help. In April, JUST 5 months ago, the entire world on Pakistan had a totally different view. And here we are, in just 5 months after, the entire landscape globally has shifted to accept Pakistan as a regional power.
Today, a top and one of the most senior Indian journalists said "it's amazing to see ALL 3 great powers, USA, China and Russia, despite being enemies, are all together on one point, maintaining a strategic relationship with Pakistan".
If you just think about it, his statement is VERY deep. How has Pakistan played it's card and with divine help that bitter enemies agree on ONE point, that they want good, strategic relations with Pakistan!! We are the chosen one's and we should be thankful to the Almighty.
And, Pakistan achieved all these with almost an EMPTY treasury! Some folks believed way too much in their $ reserves....
 
Excellent! I like this development in the aftermath of the Pak KSA pact.
Exercises like these with same participants were happening before the Saudi Pakistan agreement.

And its not any pact. Nobody signed any treaty with obligations.
 
Excellent! I like this development in the aftermath of the Pak KSA pact.

Song started a week ago, dance starting now :)

Exercises like these with same participants were happening before the Saudi Pakistan agreement.

And its not any pact. Nobody signed any treaty with obligations.

First time with Saudis and Chinese together in Pakistan in a tri-lateral event.

Take this exercise as one of many steps going to happen towards full force inter-operability for the future between 3 nations.
 
Announcement of deal baffles experts and former ministers, who say there is no sign of any untapped reserves

Sat 27 Sep 2025 12.00 BST

The newfound camaraderie between the US and Pakistan was on full display this week as Donald Trump welcomed Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, and the country’s powerful army chief, Asim Munir, into the Oval Office, heralding them both as ā€œgreat leadersā€.

Having been cold-shouldered by successive US presidents, this was the first time a Pakistani prime minister had been invited to Washington in more than six years. It was also the unprecedented second time this year that Munir – who holds no official government role – held an intimate meeting with Trump, which many took as a telling signal of where the power to cut deals really lies in Pakistan.

Islamabad’s charm offensive with Trump since his re-election has included handing over to the US a high profile member of Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan and publicly crediting the US president with preventing hostilities between India and Pakistan escalating into all-out war, even nominating Trump for the Nobel peace prize for his efforts.

Yet what has appeared most effective is Pakistan’s touting of its allegedly untapped natural resources – namely oil, minerals and gas – for US exploration. In July, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that ā€œwe have just concluded a Deal with the Country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive Oil Reserves. We are in the process of choosing the Oil Company that will lead this Partnership.ā€

The messaging was affirmed by Natalie Baker, the US chargĆ© d’affaires in Islamabad, who told local media that US firms had been ā€œshowing keen interest in Pakistan’s oil, gas and mineral sectors, in line with President Donald Trump’s visionā€.

Pakistan has already reaped rewards from its promise of oil. After an agreement in August, Trump gave Pakistan a generous 19% tariff on imported goods, the lowest of all south Asia nations and far below the punitive 50% tariffs that its neighbour and nemesis India is facing.

This month, a $500m (Ā£370m) deal for the US to invest in Pakistan’s nascent minerals sector – including copper and rare earths – was announced, despite a lack of definitive data on the country’s mineral reserves.

Yet it is the promise of oil that has left experts and former government ministers even more baffled. They stress that there is no reliable proof that Pakistan has any substantive, untapped oil reserves, despite years of the world’s biggest oil companies attempting to find them.

Moin Raza Khan, a geoscientist and former managing director at Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), which has been at the forefront of oil exploration, said: ā€œWhat Trump is claiming about Pakistan’s massive oil reserves has nothing to do with reality. It is without the support of any data or evidence. We don’t even know where these massive reserves would be, as we don’t have any surveys and studies so far that show us.ā€

Khan was among the experts who emphasised that despite more than half a century of exploration and drilling onshore and offshore, no large-scale commercially viable oil wells had been discovered on Pakistani soil. While some small oil repositories had been found, they produce about 65,000 barrels a day. In comparison, Saudi Arabia produces about 4bn barrels a year.

This is far from the first time that proclamations have been made about Pakistan’s potential as a petrostate. The country imports more than 80% of its oil, which is one of the biggest drains on the state coffers, prompting successive leaders to make a push for oil exploration.

Khan emphasised that over the years, more than 30 international companies, including Total, Shell and ExxonMobil, had come to Pakistan with the hope of finding oil, but had eventually left due to the high cost and security risk of exploration and low reward.

In 2015, a survey by the US energy administration estimated that the lower Indus basin in Pakistan could have 9bn barrels of ā€œtechnically recoverable oilā€, a survey that was recently referenced by Pakistan’s minister of state for petroleum, Ali Pervaiz Malik.

However, that survey has been called into question by oil companies. In 2019, the multinational oil corporations ExxonMobil and Eni worked with PPL to find oil and gas reserves offshore. But after spending more than $100m drilling the Kekra-1 Indus G block, nothing was found except a waterbed.

Khan, who headed PPL during the recent failed oil exploration, said: ā€œA total of only 1.2bn barrels of oil have been discovered so far – which is nothing – and they are claiming they can find 100 times this in just the next three years.

ā€œIt’s just impossible. There is no magic wand to multiply Pakistan’s reserves.ā€

Islamabad’s ministry of petroleum declined to comment on questions about Pakistan’s oil reserves.

Despite the lack of any new evidence, the country is pressing ahead with 40 new offshore and 31 onshore blocks for oil and gas exploration, which will be awarded on 31 October. US companies are among those invited for bidding.

GA Sabri, a former federal secretary at the ministry of petroleum and former director general petroleum concession, described the claims of massive oil reserves as a ā€œpolitical gimmickā€ and was sceptical about the success of the oil block auction.

Much of Pakistan’s alleged untapped oil and gas reserves are said to be in the regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which are in the midst of insurgencies by Taliban and separatist militants and where foreign companies have been routinely targeted.

Sabri said: ā€œWhen it comes to exploration of new fields, there are high security risks.ā€

He emphasised that ā€œeven if the US does the drilling and starts now, it will take at least two to three decades and hundreds of millions of dollars to do this exploration – and nobody can say for sure reserves will be foundā€.

Sabri said the success of Pakistan’s onshore oil drilling was nothing short of ā€œa mythā€.
 
Finding Pakistani oil is likely a fool's errand.

However, Pakistan does have proven reserves of minerals worth trillions of dollars.

I don't know why the articles calls that into question, when the relevant studies have already been done.
 

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