NOURNEWS – Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a defense pact on September 17. According to this agreement, any aggression against one of the two countries will be considered aggression against both. This strategic pact was signed in Riyadh between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. In a historical analysis, this pact has marked America’s Suez moment.
Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a defense pact on Wednesday, September 17. According to this agreement, any aggression against one of the two countries will be considered aggression against both. This strategic pact was signed in Riyadh between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. In a historical analysis, this pact has marked America’s Suez moment.
What is America’s Suez moment? – The Suez Crisis in 1956 was the endpoint of the British and French empires as global powers. At that time, London and Paris, together with Israel, attacked Egypt to take the Suez Canal out of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s control. But severe pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union forced them to retreat. In that geopolitical show, everyone realised that the era of European hegemony had ended. From then on, the United States and the Soviet Union played the role of the main superpowers of the world. Just as the Suez Crisis announced to the world the end of British and French dominance and introduced two new hegemonic powers — the US and the Soviet Union — the new Riyadh-Islamabad pact likewise announces the end of American hegemony in the region and the quiet unveiling of China in the present era.
A pact with profound consequences – This pact is not merely a military event, but carries deep geopolitical and economic layers:
The nuclear umbrella: Pakistan is the only Muslim country possessing nuclear weapons and it has not accepted the doctrine of “no first use.” Now Saudi Arabia has openly and officially come under Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence umbrella. This pact means that, for the first time, two nuclear blocs have emerged in the Middle East: US–Israel versus Pakistan–Saudi Arabia.
China’s influence: Considering that 81 percent of Pakistan’s armaments are supplied by China, Saudi Arabia has in practice linked itself to China’s military-industrial complex. This pact extends China’s influence from South Asia to the Persian Gulf. This is the same China that, in its dazzling display of military industry and iron discipline during the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, compelled the world to bow in a new ritual of power.
The end of reliance on America: The timing of the signing, just a few days after Israel’s attack on Qatar without any effective US response, says it all. When Saudi Arabia — the classic symbol of a “US-oriented state” — has reached the conclusion that it can no longer rely on Washington, what reason would there be for other countries not to reach the same conclusion?
Regional consequences: This pact eliminates forever the possibility of Saudi–Israeli normalization. Pakistan does not recognize Israel, and now Saudi Arabia will no longer come under US pressure to move closer to Tel Aviv.
The collapse of the IMEC corridor: The IMEC corridor, which was supposed to transfer the world’s manufacturing base from China to India, shift the origin of maritime trade from Shanghai to Gujarat, and act as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has now collapsed with this pact.
Global financial relations: The main pillar of America’s influence in the region and the world is the “petrodollar” — the historic agreement under which Riyadh, in return for Washington’s security support, sold oil exclusively in dollars. Now, with entry into this pact and security independence, Saudi Arabia has greater freedom to price oil in other currencies. This transformation is a direct blow to the financial dominance of the dollar. The matter becomes even more interesting when we learn that this defense pact was signed just one day after China’s Alipay digital wallet was launched in Saudi Arabia. That is, the defense pact emerged after the economic integration of China and Saudi Arabia.
The oilfield wars: Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are the two countries with the largest oil reserves in the world. If the United States has surrounded Venezuela with a wall of naval fleets in order to control the endless oil reserves of Caracas and Guyana, why should China, as the largest importer and the second-largest consumer of oil in the world, not secure eternal energy for itself with the oilfields of the Persian Gulf?
The pact of Saudi Arabia with Pakistan and China has created a new ritual of power in the world. This pact plays the same role that the Suez Crisis once did in ending the hegemony of Britain, France, and Europe. The world is now multipolar, and the United States is no longer the unrivalled power it once was.