By Anuvesh Rath
The timing had a practical rationale. No official on either side has acknowledged a connection between the two events. Aurangzeb thanked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan and the Saudi vice finance minister for their continued support. The Saudi statement referred to the bonds of brotherhood and the shared commitment to fostering Pakistan’s economic growth. Both countries have manufacturing capacity beyond what their domestic economies can sustain, while Turkey’s defence ministry has spoken of joint development and production among the three countries.
On 15 April, the State Bank of Pakistan confirmed that $2 billion had arrived from Saudi Arabia. A day earlier, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced in Washington that the kingdom had committed a further $3 billion in deposits and would extend an existing $5 billion deposit on longer terms, no longer dependent on an annual rollover. Pakistan owed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) $3.5 billion in matured deposits before the end of April and was operating under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, with a foreign exchange reserves target of more than $18 billion for June. The UAE has since scaled back its support, prompting Riyadh to step in and raise its overall exposure to $8 billion, making Saudi Arabia Pakistan’s most significant financial partner. Three weeks after the rollover, on 7 August, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. On 4 October, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tehran hoped reports of a Pakistani deployment for a war in Yemen were untrue.
The following day, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Islamabad’s role was supportive and that only Saudi forces were fighting.
