Pakistan expands defense cooperation with Kuwait, boosts Middle East role

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan and Kuwait on August 27 signed a new defense agreement, described by Pakistan's Defense Ministry as significantly enhancing the bilateral military cooperation framework in place since 2023.

Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, signed the “2026 Protocol Agreement” in Rawalpindi. According to a statement from Pakistan's Defense Ministry, the agreement allows Pakistani armed forces to provide training support to Kuwaiti troops, assist in defense capacity building, and aid in border management.

The new deal builds on a framework agreement signed in June 2023 but only officially ratified by Kuwait last month. It is the latest move in Pakistan's expanding defense cooperation across the Middle East.

In recent years, Pakistan has signed a joint defense pact with Saudi Arabia, joined a trilateral collective security arrangement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey dubbed the “Mecca Pact,” deployed thousands of troops along with a fighter jet squadron to Saudi Arabia, and expanded military training cooperation programs with Qatar.

Increasingly formalized ties

Kuwait is the latest Gulf state to bolster defense ties with Islamabad. Defense cooperation between the two countries dates back to the late 1960s. During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, Pakistan sent a large military force to Saudi Arabia, positioning defenses around Mecca and Madinah following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Retired Major General Zahid Mahmood, a former two-star general and now defense analyst, sees that history as the backdrop to the newly signed deal. In his view, the agreement with Kuwait is not comparable to the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA) Pakistan signed with Saudi Arabia last September, as it lacks any clause akin to the central commitment of the Mecca Pact or SMDA, which treat aggression against one signatory as aggression against all.

The partnership with Kuwait covers training, logistics, intelligence sharing, and joint exercises, overseen by an annual joint military committee. Mahmood suggests Kuwait appears to be shifting from basic defense cooperation toward a more structured security partnership, though it still falls short of a collective defense commitment akin to Article 5.

Umer Karim, a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, said the new deal gives Pakistan a role not only in Kuwait's broader defense capacity development but specifically in securing its border with Iraq. “If Pakistani troops are deployed to Kuwait and positioned along the border, essentially this agreement moves closer to the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia arrangement,” he said.

Retired Kuwaiti Air Force Major General Yousef Al-Mulla also told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Pakistan's developing military industrial capabilities and nuclear status lend it “strategic weight.”

What Pakistan brings

Analysts point to waning confidence in U.S. security guarantees in the Gulf following Israel's strike on a Doha compound where Hamas officials were engaged in indirect negotiations in September 2025. Days later, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the SMDA.

In the U.S.-Iran war that began in February this year, Iranian attacks struck U.S. and Kuwaiti targets on Kuwaiti soil, including one that killed six U.S. troops near Shuaiba port.

Salman Al-Jawana, head of political press at the Kuwait Journalists Association, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed the agreement “should not be read as a routine bilateral deal, but in the context of the reshaping security environment in the Gulf after regional threats escalated.”

Pakistan brings unique advantages to this role. Karim notes Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world. Pakistan also holds rare diplomatic space: it has served as a central mediator in the U.S.-Iran war, trusted by both sides, while maintaining strong ties with Arab nations and China—the rising superpower the region seeks to court. This allows states reliant on the U.S. security umbrella to diversify options without irking Washington the way similar agreements with China might.

What Pakistan gets

What Islamabad receives is less clear than what it offers. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country received a record $41.6 billion in remittances in the last fiscal year, with nearly half coming from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

General Asim Munir told Pakistani businessmen in 2023 that Gulf nations could invest up to $100 billion in the country. Yet after three years, actual investment remains a fraction of that figure.

Karim says what Pakistan can expect from Kuwait remains undefined. “It's unclear what Pakistan will get in return, but most likely support from Kuwait could come in the form of subsidized energy supplies, although that only matures once the Strait of Hormuz dispute is resolved one way or another. Kuwait could also open visas for Pakistani labor,” he said. About 95,000 Pakistanis currently live in Kuwait.

Mahmood sees broader advantages plainly: “Any strategic cooperation of this kind makes you much more relevant, and that relevance now extends beyond the region.” The former military official believes the Kuwait deal is also likely to “strengthen economic ties” and help address some of Pakistan's economic challenges. He acknowledged risks remain, especially given the potential for regional conflict to turn extremely dangerous along sectarian lines, but “the advantages Pakistan is reaping and will continue to reap from this strategic approach far outweigh the risks.”