ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Kuwait signed an agreement on Thursday expanding military cooperation, with Islamabad to provide training, capacity building and border-management assistance to the Gulf state as regional security ties deepen amid the prolonged conflict involving Iran.
The new protocol builds on a 2023 defense cooperation agreement between the two countries and comes weeks after Kuwait ratified that pact and Pakistan joined Saudi Arabia and Türkiye in a separate mutual defense agreement against a backdrop of heightened Middle East tensions.
The agreement was signed during a visit to Pakistan by Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Saleem Al-Sabah, who met his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in Rawalpindi.
“Under the new agreement, the Armed Forces of Pakistan will extend assistance to the Armed Forces of Kuwait in diverse fields, including training, capacity building, border management and other mutually agreed areas of defense collaboration,” Pakistan’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the “Protocol Agreement 2026” significantly enhanced the military cooperation framework established under the Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by Pakistan and Kuwait in June 2023.
