Pakistan Ratifies Defence Pact With Kuwait

Photo: Express Tribune

Pakistan has formally ratified its defence cooperation agreement with Kuwait, more than three years after the two countries signed it. The federal cabinet approved the deal in Islamabad on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair, and the pact will now run for five years.

Geo News reports that the cabinet ratified the agreement at its Wednesday meeting, and the Prime Minister's Office said Kuwait had already ratified the pact on 19 July. Pakistan and Kuwait first signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement on 11 June 2023.

The deal is about working together, not about posting troops. It covers military manufacturing, electronic communications systems, scientific research, military media, and cultural and sports activities. The Express Tribune adds that it also covers military training, education, intelligence sharing, logistics, defence technology, research and exchanges of expertise, so the two armed forces build closer working ties.

A joint military committee will run the practical side, arranging joint exercises, official visits and other joint programmes. Both countries have also promised to protect confidential military information and to settle any dispute through diplomatic channels. The pact renews itself automatically after five years unless either side decides to end it.

Put plainly, this is a framework deal. It does not announce a deployment or a new base. It sets the rules for training together, sharing know-how and making defence equipment together, and it gives both sides a standing committee to keep that work moving.

The timing matters because the Gulf is tense. At the same meeting, the prime minister spoke about Pakistan's efforts to calm tensions in the region and mentioned an agreement involving Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye. Kuwait itself has been among the Gulf states targeted during the recent regional escalation, with Tehran saying its strikes were aimed at United States facilities hosted by Gulf states, while Kuwaiti authorities said their air defences stopped projectiles that entered the country's airspace.

The cabinet took other decisions at the same sitting, and they are worth knowing in one place:

• Powers delegated to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister move to the provincial governor for day to day affairs during the emergency, with a monthly review report to the federal government.
• New currency note designs were approved, with better security features and modern materials, and a Rs10 coin will replace the Rs10 banknote.
• A proposed Rs160 billion development package for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was finalised, and the fuel subsidy programme will run until the end of December.

For readers following the cabinet's recent economic decisions, the same government has also backed subsidised gas for BISP families under the new LPG policy, is weighing arbitration to recover 800 million dollars from Etisalat over the PTCL sale, and has just cut petrol to Rs362 a litre from today.

Sources

• Geo News: Federal cabinet ratifies Pakistan-Kuwait defence cooperation agreement
• The Express Tribune: Pakistan continues diplomatic efforts to ease Mideast tensions, PM Shehbaz
• The News: Pakistan ratifies defence cooperation agreement with Kuwait

Next, the joint military committee is expected to set out its first meetings and joint programmes, which will show how quickly the paper deal turns into real cooperation.

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