The Indian Foreign Ministry issued a cautious public statement on Sept. 19, two days after the announcement of a mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a country with which India has had long-standing conflicts, including a recent border military confrontation. The Indian statement emphasized that “India and Saudi Arabia have a wide-ranging strategic partnership which has deepened considerably in the last few years” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters during a weekly news briefing. “We expect that this strategic partnership will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities,” Reuters reported him as saying.
The Saudi-Pakistan defense pact “is redrawing power lines” across the region, Middle East Eye reported. Although the full text of the agreement has not been made public, Riyadh announced that it is “a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means,” including Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal, which some media estimate as consisting of about 170 nuclear warheads. New Delhi is estimated to have about 180 nuclear warheads.
