Daily Times Editorials 31th August 2026

Much-Needed Partnership

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to raise Pakistani agricultural and food exports to $3 billion within two years to mark the Saudi delegation’s visit to Islamabad, naming rice, red meat, fruit concentrates, green fodder and water-efficient technology as areas for cooperation. The government deserves credit for bringing a business agenda into a relationship often sustained by political goodwill. It has opened a useful door. The difficult work begins now.

First and foremost, the target needs to be explained clearly. Does the $3 billion figure refer to annual exports by 2028, sales accumulated over two years, or prospective contracts? These are very different outcomes. Pakistan supplied Saudi Arabia with 169,000 tonnes of rice worth $163 million in 2025, as red-meat exports of about 30,000 tonnes earned $167 million, giving the country a base in the Saudi market all the while showing how much new business must be created.

Rice offers another useful lesson. Saudi Arabia imported $1.6 billion worth of milled rice in 2023. India held 77.2 per cent of that market, while Pakistan’s share stood at 8.5 per cent. Notwithstanding the geopolitical winds, our exporters will still have to compete for every additional bag through dependable quality, supply and price.Geographic Reference

The larger Saudi food market gives Pakistan room to grow. The Kingdom imported $27.3 billion in agri-food and seafood products in 2023, and its packaged-food market was valued at $24.6 billion last year. Riyadh is still looking for dependable suppliers as part of its food-security planning. Pakistan should understand what that demand entails. Saudi food rules admit imports only from approved establishments. Meat exports require accredited slaughterhouses, veterinary controls, halal documentation and an unbroken cold chain. Fruit concentrates require clean processing, packaging and shipments that arrive in saleable condition. Mutual recognition of quality certificates, discussed in Islamabad, could remove a serious barrier if it is carried through. The government should publish a list of Pakistani facilities already cleared for the Saudi market and the steps required for those still outside it.

Green fodder demands particular caution. Saudi Arabia has curtailed domestic fodder cultivation to conserve water. Pakistan should not absorb the environmental cost without asking hard questions about where the crop will be grown and which water source it will draw upon. The Bhakkar irrigation project can help small farmers if it raises yields and lowers water use. However, a fodder export programme that drains stressed aquifers would leave little to celebrate.

Agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of Pakistan’s economy. A serious Saudi market can bring income to more than a third of the Pakistanis directly involved with farming and related activities. Two years from now, this promise will be measured in Pakistani products bought regularly in Saudi stores and in farm incomes that show where the trade has gone. *

Meeting in Istanbul

Field Marshal Asim Munir and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar landed in Istanbul on Sunday ahead of the first meeting under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement.

While little information was made available on the composition of Pakistan’s delegation, one cannot make light of the first gathering under the agreement signed on August 7, which brought Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye behind a collective-defence pledge. The first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee must now give that pledge the machinery required to carry weight in a crisis.

The Makkah joint statement says that an armed attack on any one signatory will be regarded as an attack on all three. It does not publicly spell out the response expected from each capital. That omission was understandable when the agreement was signed. Istanbul, however, is where the harder questions will have to be addressed. Who calls an emergency consultation? What threshold triggers it? Which political authorities decide the form of support? How are military movements, airspace, logistics and public communication coordinated when events are moving faster than ministerial statements?Regional News Updates

Such details are sensitive and should remain so. The three governments need not publish operational plans. Nevertheless, they do need to create institutions that can act before telephone calls become a substitute for policy. Even Nato’s Article 5, often invoked in commentary on the Makkah pact, does not compel identical military action from every ally. It requires each to take the action it deems necessary. The Makkah agreement’s public wording is more spare. That gives the three states room to shape their own system. It also leaves a great deal to settle.

Türkiye has already spoken of political and military mechanisms, joint exercises across land, sea and air, and cooperation in air defence, unmanned systems and electronic warfare. The Istanbul meeting should establish focal points in each capital and create a timetable for the secretariat and working groups.

Pakistan has a particular interest in the industrial side of this arrangement. Its military experience and trained workforce bring value to the table. Türkiye’s defence and aerospace exports exceeded $10 billion in 2025. Saudi Arabia wants to localise more than half of its military equipment and services spending by 2030, yet its localisation rate stood at 19.35 per cent in 2024. That gap creates an opportunity, provided Pakistan enters the arrangement as a producer with ownership in the work.

Pakistan has affirmed repeatedly over the past six months that its interest lies in deterrence, regional stability and the diplomatic space to prevent disputes from widening. The pact’s defensive character must remain clear. Its relevance lies in its capacity to deter aggression without becoming a licence for adventurism or a bloc directed at a particular country. *