The GCC and collective security

The Arab Gulf states person for decades looked externally for their security, peculiarly to the West.

The United States, United Kingdom and France person bases passim the region, underscoring the Gulf’s value to the West. But the consciousness of information these bases supply is not arsenic coagulated arsenic it erstwhile was.

In the US, a increasing conception of the overseas argumentation sphere views East Asia arsenic much important to Washington, mostly due to the fact that of the emergence of China arsenic a menace to American hegemony.

Analysts who reason that the West is nary longer a reliable protector for the Gulf constituent to grounds specified arsenic the September onslaught connected Doha by Israel, which continues to person US enactment contempt Washington’s effort to region itself from the strike.

The uncertainty seems to person prompted Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) subordinate states to see different options for their information with possibly the astir notable caller illustration being the defence pact signed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan past month.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia person continued to fortify ties, including a sojourn to the second by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif connected October 27, successful which a wide-ranging economical model was signed.

The GCC and corporate security

Collective information successful the GCC tin beryllium achieved done 2 abstracted but related concepts: “collective management” and “endogenous security”.

Collective absorption successful the discourse of GCC information would see ample determination powers, specified arsenic Egypt, Pakistan and Turkiye, forming an confederation that would person a shared involvement successful providing information to countries successful the wider Islamic world.

Egypt has the strongest and largest Arab army, and aft the onslaught connected Qatar, its president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, projected a unit that could intervene if immoderate Arab state is attacked, offering 20,000 subject personnel.

Pakistan is the lone Muslim state with atomic deterrence, and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has not ruled retired the anticipation of different Arab countries joining the statement betwixt Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Turkiye is simply a NATO subordinate with Western subject standards and modern weaponry and does not shy distant from taking positions that are supportive of different Muslim-majority countries.

Previous iterations of these alliances person historically fallen abbreviated of their goals, specified arsenic the Middle East Strategic Alliance, projected during the archetypal medication of US President Donald Trump to basal against Iran and its allied forces but which proved ineffective.

That was partially a effect of its absorption connected Iran, adjacent arsenic galore determination countries were moving distant from viewing Iran arsenic an contiguous threat, dissimilar the US presumption of Tehran.

From left: Bahrain Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Kuwait Crown Prince Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Omani Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Cooperation Affairs Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said, US President Donald Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi during the GCC acme successful Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, connected May 14, 2025 [Alex Brandon/AP]

The 2nd signifier of information is endogenous security, based connected shared defence structures among GCC members, who person signed galore determination information and defence pacts.

These see the enactment of a unified service named the Peninsula Shield Force (PSF) successful 1984, the Joint Defence Agreement (JDA) successful 2000 – modelled connected NATO’s Article 5 and committing to corporate defence – and yet the Unified Military Command successful 2013, which aimed for a much integrated and centralised bid structure.

Although these unions somewhat strengthened the consciousness of corporate information among members, they did not alteration the information that idiosyncratic countries had longstanding reliance connected outer guarantors, sovereignty concerns and divergent responses to determination conflicts.

The PSF was virtually useless during the 1990 penetration of Kuwait due to the fact that it had lone a brigade-sized unit (roughly 5,000 soldiers) astatine the clip and was caught disconnected defender by the standard and velocity of the Iraqi invasion. The JDA lone convened an exigency gathering during the Israeli onslaught connected Doha, reiterating the indivisibility of subordinate states’ security. The extremity of the JDA is corporate enactment against an aggressor unit similar NATO. It should person achieved this purpose done much broad mechanisms oregon coalitions with different subject alliances, but it lacked this capability.

These incidents underline that what exists is simply a associated subject bid operation with small cohesion, based connected communal defence agreements that are hard to enforce.

The beingness of US forces and reliance connected US arms supplies bounds the GCC’s quality for autarkic action. Furthermore, the militaries of these countries deficiency extended combat acquisition compared with different determination armies similar those of Egypt and Turkiye.

There remain, however, 5 cardinal areas the GCC could cooperate in: logistics and proviso chains, technological innovation, defence concern absorption and production, quality sharing, and aerial and rocket defence.

It remains to beryllium seen however the GCC volition negociate specified coalitions alongside the beingness of outer powers and what way it volition instrumentality towards achieving corporate security.

Saudi Arabia’s diversification

On September 17, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), stipulating that aggression against 1 would beryllium considered aggression against both, a clause reminiscent of Article 5 of NATO’s North Atlantic Treaty.

The woody diversified Saudi Arabia’s information guarantees, reduced its dependence connected the US and underlined its autonomy connected defence arrangements extracurricular the Western mandate, giving it a equilibrium betwixt the powerfulness poles of the US, China and the region.

Although China avoids ceremonial subject alliances successful the Middle East, it would beryllium blessed to spot its rival Washington constrained. China has adjacent ties with Pakistan, and a much ceremonial Saudi beingness successful Pakistan would beryllium welcomed by Beijing.

Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif successful Islamabad, Pakistan [File: Salahuddin/Reuters]

China has invested billions of dollars successful infrastructure and vigor projects nether the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and is Pakistan’s largest trading spouse with bilateral commercialized of much than $25bn annually. China besides accounts for 81 percent of Pakistan’s arms imports.

However, the US beingness successful the Middle East is monolithic and longstanding. It has 19 bases successful the region, led an planetary conjugation to liberate Kuwait successful 1991 and protects commercialized shipping successful the Gulf – arsenic good arsenic starring the 2003 penetration and consequent concern of Iraq and decades-long enactment for Israel.

On the different hand, Pakistan has its ain conflicts with India and Afghanistan, giving it constricted capableness for effectual engagement successful Middle Eastern crises, contempt the communal defence clause.

Therefore, portion this pact diversifies Riyadh’s information options, it is not yet susceptible of redefining its accepted information dependencies.

Tangible achievements

But the statement inactive represents a novel, non-Western attack to determination security, entrusting the solution of information complexities to the determination countries themselves.

It besides allows these countries to payment from each other’s assets and resources. Through practice with Pakistan’s defence industries, Saudi Arabia seeks to realise its ambitious Vision 2030 goals, which see localising 50 percent of its defence needs wrong the adjacent 5 years and joining the ranks of the world’s apical 25 arms-exporting countries.

Pakistan has made immense advancement successful its rocket manufacture with its Shaheen-3 rocket reaching a scope of 2,750km (1,709 miles), adjacent raising concerns astir the imaginable accumulation of intercontinental ballistic missiles susceptible of hitting targets arsenic acold arsenic the US.

Saudi Arabia has antecedently cooperated with China successful this tract and tin present put successful drone and rocket industries with Pakistan, giving it a deterrent against Iranian rocket threats.

Pakistani engineers and institutions, specified arsenic the Heavy Industries Taxila and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, person the expertise to build, support and repair drones, craft and aviation equipment.

Saudi Arabia could payment from practice with them by providing generous backing that could yet payment civilian sectors specified arsenic aerospace, artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity and electronics.

Despite specified collaborations appearing straightforward astatine archetypal glance, they look operational challenges.

Defence practice and the constitution of associated subject industries necessitate the coordination and integration of defence standards. Saudi Arabia’s defence strategy is Western successful quality and profoundly babelike connected American hardware, quality and enactment networks whereas Pakistani technologies – though cost-effective – are mostly astatine a little level of method complexity compared with their Western counterparts, which could complicate communal cooperation.

Moreover, bureaucracies successful the 2 countries run astatine antithetic speeds. Riyadh’s betterment docket is centralised and capital-intensive portion Pakistan’s defence assemblage remains heavy state-controlled and faces fund shortages.

From left: Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pakistani service main Syed Asim Munir aft signing the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement successful Riyadh connected September 17, 2025 [Handout/Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office]

Therefore, practice successful associated subject production, successful summation to standardising protocols, requires overcoming administrative and taste challenges.

The caller Saudi-Pakistan defence pact and broader discussions astir corporate absorption and endogenous information successful the Gulf exemplify that the portion is astatine an inflexion point.

The longstanding dependence connected Western extortion is being reassessed, not done abrupt abandonment but done diversifying information guarantees. The displacement does not yet awesome a wholesale decoupling from the US but alternatively a recalibration with Gulf capitals investigating the viability of parallel information arrangements.

The Saudi-Pakistan statement reflects a willingness to prosecute caller partners and reimagine information arsenic thing not conscionable provided by Western powers but jointly constructed by determination actors.

Whether that happens volition beryllium connected galore factors, including governmental volition and whether these caller partnerships are beardown capable to yet regenerate the aged mode of doing things. For now, the portion is witnessing the aboriginal stages of a imaginable strategical rebalancing – 1 that could, implicit time, redefine Gulf and determination information and however it fits wrong the wider world.