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Saudi Arabia signs mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan
(www.aljazeera.com)
Things are getting interesting...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Saudi Arabia was still run by a compadre government. This can't be good for Pakistan and West Asia, can it?
This is actually good. Saudi Arabia is afraid of the US, afraid to be turned into another Iran or worse Iraq. At face value this mutual defence pact means it has the protection of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. There's still the risk of economic sanctions but Saudi Arabia trades more with China and other East Asian countries than it does with the US. There's also the issue of the US troops stationed in the region.
Saudi Arabia has stepped out of US rules a few times: when it made a peace deal with Iran to the objection of the Biden administration, and when it made technology deals with Huawei. They still have to pay tributes to the US every now and then though to keep away the risk of being sanctioned or invaded, but they take the form of investments and I think they benefit from it as well.
Of course, I agree.
Pakistan's entire foreign policy is "Fuck India"
India's entire foreign policy is "Fuck Pakistan"
That's literally the whole thing about this, shit's fucked out on the Subcontinent.
Considering KSA pacts with Israel and USA, one questions where their allegiaces actually are. We already know where Israel and USA allegiances are. Russia, China, DPRK, are the variables that from my own ignorance and looking in from the outside are making this extremely interesting and hard to guess.
KSA's allegiance is to KSA, if a pact with the US helps them, they will make it, if a pact with China helps them, they will make it. One reason cited by Saudi leaders as to why Saudi Arabia made more tech deals with China, Huawei for example despite US warnings, is that the deals aren't conditioned on normalization with Israel and social and political changes.
KSA knows that it is a rich country that has many weak points and has no chance of surviving being on the bad side of the US. What the US is doing to Gaza serves as a warning to Arab leaders which makes them afraid unfortunately.
Something I read here on Lemmy is that states don't have allies, they have interests, and I'd confidently wager that's the underlying truth regardless of state. Being allied with so many in the general region if (when?) something pops off begs the question, what is the prevailing interest.
KSA's allegiance is to the Almighty Dollar at this point, why else would they bring WrestleMania to Saudi.
*comprador
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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Geopolitics
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