Many Indian analysts see the Mecca Pact as a triumph of Pakistani diplomacy; instead, Asif Munir has walked into a sinister trap. He is turning his soldiers into mercenary cannon fodder for Saudi Arabia and Turkey and has become a subordinate of Iran. Muslim conquerors from outside had nothing in common with South Asian populations. Now Munir is allowing his people to be subjugated again without their conquerors having to wield the sword even in the slightest manner.
Pakistan is already, voluntarily, an almost wholly-owned Chinese colony, run by a brilliant Xi Jinping, who is using the Gulf states, West Asia and much of global south, under the guise of support for their economic prosperity, to steadily isolate and push the US and its European allies back to the wall. His is a truly frighteningly dangerous ambition that could push the entire world and, especially India, into the dragon flames of the greatest war humankind will ever know.
A war is the last thing Xi wants for his people. Yet he is sleepwalking into the worst one just to win arguments over an ever-changing succession of American administrations. Like their current iteration, Donald Trump, all are so immersed in their electorates that they start blood-soaked wars instead of toiling to lift their people to happiness, health and prosperity. They set examples of how to create divisions and then fight with bombs to erase them.
Yet, many of our finest analysts and aspirants to national leadership seem to think that this confused Munir, so disconnected from his own roots, is admirable when compared to Narendra Modi. And that, just because Modi was a poor lad who took shelter in the free education and fraternity offered by nearby self-service groups, who were dedicated to better understanding their native roots at a time of oppression by foreign colonial rulers.
Those sophisticated critics, more familiar with the streets of Boston and Oxbridge and more learned at quoting Tennyson and Twain than 99.99 per cent of their fellow citizens, claim deeper and more precise love of democracy than the hundreds of millions, who wait under the blistering summer sun for hours just to get ink on their fingers with pride for having voted. Many may be voting for leaders wrong for them, but our sophisticates often see them as lesser minions because they know better than to struggle just to reach a run-down, non-air-conditioned polling booth.
Delhi should investigate transitioning from an economic partner to the Gulf region, Turkey, Iran and West Asia into an assertive security stakeholder in Southwest Asia
Now, torrents of speculative interpretations are being unleashed about why the Mecca pact is a threat to our people just because disparate Muslims signed it in their holiest sanctuary at Mecca. Suddenly, India’s leaders must do something immediately about a desperate attempt by beleaguered leaders plunged in a disastrous war they never sought and imposed by unseen foreigners killing their ancient peoples from the air.
Basic common sense would be to first notice what is actually happening. The only obvious element so far is that the ‘Mecca Joint Defence Agreement’ is a misnomer. It is not a military agreement, despite its vague pretence at being a collective defence pact. It might only mean that Pakistani soldiers die in defence of Saudi interests in the neighbourhood, like against the Houthis in north Yemen.
But there is not the slightest possibility at this time that Saudi or Turkish soldiers will rush to Pakistan’s aid if Munir orchestrates another terrorist attack on Indian soil and gets a devastating response from India’s ever-more lethal war machine. None of the three has a contractual treaty under this pact, although there is an unclear commitment under Pakistan’s earlier September 2025 accord with Saudi Arabia.
But its actual implementation on the ground remains to be seen. Despatching a few thousand soldiers, a handful of aircraft and some materiel doesn’t amount to an ‘I’ll die for you’ pledge. Looks more like propaganda aimed at the Saudi Crown Prince’s domestic audience. As yet, it’s little more than Saudi’s throwing a few billion dollars at Munir to buy his soldiers’ lives just in case. Nothing else is known definitively about the Mecca pact.
The most that can be said so far is that Delhi should investigate transitioning from an economic partner to the Gulf region, Turkey, Iran and West Asia into an assertive security stakeholder in Southwest Asia. While it complicates New Delhi’s calculations, India’s rising economic weight and deep ties with Israel and European Mediterranean states give it remarkable leverage to successfully balance the emerging security environment. And don’t panic about Munir and his short-sightedness, yet.