With decades of collaboration behind them, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia\u2019s recent announcement of a mutual security agreement might seem like just a formality confirming their ongoing partnership. However, it represents something far more significant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Bloomberg<\/em>, this pact serves as the first tangible sign of what a post-American world could entail, one characterised by increased insecurity, instability, and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two nations were indeed close for decades. In 1967, two months after Israel\u2019s victory in the Six-Day War, they signed a security agreement in which the country’s battle-hardened military promised training and support to the Kingdom. Two years later, Pakistani pilots flew for Saudi Arabia in its war against communist South Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the 1980s, the generals in Rawalpindi had sent their ally 15,000 soldiers to help protect a regime unnerved by the siege of Mecca in 1979. There were even Pakistani tanks stationed at Tabuk near the Kingdom\u2019s northwest border, a short drive from Israel\u2019s Red Sea port of Eilat. But such closeness seemed consigned to the history books in 2015 after Pakistan\u2019s National Assembly unexpectedly defied Riyadh \u2014 and perhaps their own military \u2014 by refusing to send soldiers to fight the Houthis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Saudis were outraged, especially since they had long been bankrolling their increasingly improvident friends: They\u2019d sent over a “gift” of $1.5 billion the previous year. But Chinese money had begun to flow as well, and the petrodollar was no longer the only game in town. The civilian politicians in Islamabad felt they could take a few risks, and reclaim a bit of sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the decade that followed, Saudi Arabia instead developed an ever-closer relationship with India. Its grants to Pakistan became loans that have to be paid back or rolled over. The Chinese, meanwhile, are now focused on buying Russia\u2019s loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pakistan\u2019s leaders know that they have not been able to fix the fundamental reason their country constantly teeters on the edge of bankruptcy: It buys more from the world than it has to sell. All they\u2019ve invested in for decades is the military \u2014 and so, today, they have nothing else to offer a partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that is an attractive enough offer for a Riyadh that is as uncertain today as it was in the 1970s. For decades, the Gulf monarchies have relied on the US for protection, support, and weapons. They have gone out of their way to woo the current president, as well. Qatar famously gave him a $400 million jet to use as Air Force One.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that didn\u2019t stop the emirate, home to the largest US base in the Middle East as well as a hotel housing Hamas leaders, from being bombed earlier this month by Israeli jets. The Qataris insisted that any American warnings about the attack came 10 minutes after the strikes had already begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the second time that Qatar has been attacked this year; in June, Iran launched missiles at the US\u2019s Al Udeid airbase. In other words, they were successively bombed by America\u2019s adversary and its ally, while Washington itself did nothing in either case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Countries naturally think now that an apathetic US may be more trouble than it\u2019s worth, and look for help elsewhere. That\u2019s led the Saudis back to Pakistan, which can offer worried former American satellites something few others will: A nuclear umbrella.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With decades of collaboration behind them, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia\u2019s recent announcement of a mutual<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[216,215,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-latest","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n