Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have signed a new defence deal. It’s called the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA). Under this deal, “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both”. There are also vague indications that Saudi Arabia will get the benefit of Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities but in what is not clear.

What triggered this deal? What’s in it for Saudi Arabia, which is already under the US security blanket? What does this deal mean for India, especially in the context of ongoing tensions with Pakistan? And what does it mean for our relations with Saudi Arabia?

Guest: Bashir Ali Abbas, Senior Research Associate at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research, New Delhi

Host: G Sampath

Shot, produced and edited by Jude Francis Weston

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