ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Kuwait’s defence minister was received at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi by Field Marshal Asim Munir on Thursday, before signing Pakistan’s second defence agreement with Kuwait in as many months, part of a Gulf and Middle Eastern defence network that now spans four countries in under two years.
The “Protocol Agreement-2026” was signed by Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Kuwait’s Minister of Defence, Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Saleem Al-Sabah, significantly enhancing the framework established under the two countries’ original Defence Cooperation Agreement of June 2023, an agreement Kuwait formally ratified through a decree-law only last month. Under the new protocol, Pakistan’s armed forces will extend training, capacity building, and border-management assistance to Kuwait’s military, along with other mutually agreed areas of cooperation.
The pattern is now difficult to miss. Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia in September 2025, signed a separate $4 billion arms agreement with Libya the same year, watched Türkiye join the Saudi framework this August as the trilateral Makkah Defence Pact, and has now moved twice with Kuwait alone, first the July ratification, now this expanded protocol. Syria has separately said it is weighing whether to join the Makkah pact outright, which would make it a fifth. Thursday’s agreement arrives specifically as Gulf states face renewed security anxiety from the ongoing conflict involving Iran, a backdrop Pakistan’s own outreach to the UAE amid Iranian strikes earlier this year fits into as well.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence said the new agreement reflected “the trust, mutual respect and shared strategic interests underpinning the longstanding defence relationship” between the two countries, adding that both sides had reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening ties in support of mutual security and regional stability. The Kuwaiti delegation’s stop at GHQ before the civilian signing, a sequencing that has now become routine for Pakistan’s Gulf defence diplomacy, focused on regional security and bilateral cooperation, according to Inter-Services Public Relations.
Thursday’s agreement is still narrower than the far larger arrangement Kuwait has separately been negotiating with Islamabad. Reuters reported in July, citing five sources familiar with the talks, that Kuwait was seeking a substantially greater Pakistani military presence, potentially including thousands of troops, fighter jets, drones, and air-defense systems, in exchange for energy cooperation and investment.
