Pakistan expected a lot and probably overestimated its expectation and influence over Taliban after the 2020 Doha Agreement. Pakistan had understandable reasons to expect a better security relationship. It had helped the peace process move forward and maintained longstanding ties with Taliban leaders. The Doha Agreement committed the Taliban to preventing Afghan territory from being

Pakistan is economically improving, but it remains too dependent on foreign financing, Gulf remittances and vulnerable fuel routes to absorb the economic effects of a prolonged regional war.  Stronger reserves, record remittances and IMF support make a short-term disruption relatively easier to handle, but it has limits. Pakistan has no working national emergency fuel reserve,

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement can deter conflict in the region, only if Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye draw a clear line between defending one another and automatically joining one another’s wars. Its strength lies in making an attacker think twice: pressure on one member could now bring political, intelligence and military support from the

The formation of a long-awaited maritime coalition in Middle East is here to protect the freedom of navigation along the trade route of Bab-al-Mandeb to the Mediterranean Sea via Rea Sea and Suez Canal. All eyes are on Saudi led maritime military coalition, an amalgam of 14 nations and EU. It is a maritime defense

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye is the result of several converging strategic, economic and security factors rather than a response to a single regional threat. Growing instability in the Middle East, uncertainty surrounding existing security arrangements, Saudi Arabia's search for greater strategic autonomy, and the expanding defence cooperation between

The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement matters for the Middle East because it could make an attack on Saudi Arabia, Turkiye or Pakistan more costly and give each country greater confidence that it would not face a crisis alone. The three have agreed that an armed attack on one will be treated as an attack on