Pakistan and Kuwait signed a bilateral defense agreement in Rawalpindi, expanding a military cooperation framework originally established in June 2023. According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence, the “Protocol Agreement-2026” was signed by Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah during an official visit.
The newly structured partnership provides a framework for the Pakistan Armed Forces to assist the Kuwaiti military with training, capacity building, and border management, alongside logistics and intelligence sharing overseen by an annual joint military committee, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Institutional Ties and Historical Context
Defense cooperation between Islamabad and Kuwait dates back to the late 1960s, with deep historical backdrops that include Pakistan’s military deployment to Saudi Arabia during the 1990–91 Gulf War following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, according to defense analyst Zahid Mahmood, a former two-star Pakistani general who spoke to Al Jazeera.
While the agreement elevates bilateral security coordination, Mahmood noted to Al Jazeera that the pact does not feature an Article 5-style collective defense commitment akin to the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) Pakistan signed with Saudi Arabia, or the trilateral “Mecca Pact” involving Saudi Arabia and Turkiye. Instead, according to Mahmood, the arrangement moves Kuwait from basic defense cooperation into a more structured institutional partnership.
Umer Karim, an associate fellow at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera that prospective deployments of Pakistani troops to Kuwait’s border with Iraq would give Islamabad a direct role in securing the frontier. Karim noted that the pact helps Gulf states diversify their defense partnerships and add an extra layer of deterrence.
Regional Defense Strategy
The agreement with Kuwait forms part of a broader expansion of Pakistan’s military diplomacy across the Middle East. In recent years, Islamabad has finalized defense pacts, training arrangements, and troop deployments with regional capitals including Riyadh, Doha, and Ankara.
Yousef Al-Mulla, a retired Kuwaiti air force major-general, told the pan-Arab outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Pakistan’s nuclear status and expanding military-industrial capabilities provide the country with strategic weight in regional security architectures.
News18 reported that the pact aims to enhance operational readiness, facilitate the exchange of military expertise across defense technology and research, and improve institutional integration between the two militaries.
Keep reading