A defense agreement with Saudi Arabia. An almost nuclear war with India. The ongoing detention of the country’s most famous opposition leader. And a self-proclaimed democracy that’s effectively run by the military. Mehdi sits down with Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif in New York to discuss all of this and more, in a wide-ranging and exclusive interview covering the domestic and foreign policies of one of the US’s closest allies in the region (that also happens to be allied with China) – and the only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority country in the world.
Last week, Pakistan signed a historic mutual defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, which has long wanted to be a nuclear power. “Is Saudi Arabia protected by Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella per this agreement?” Mehdi asks.
Mehdi also probed the defense minister on his government’s treatment of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition leader and former prime minister Imran Khan, who has been behind bars since August 2023, despite international condemnation and UN experts calling his detention “illegal”. “The UN’s own working group on arbitrary detention said last year that there was no legal basis for Khan’s imprisonment… What is your response to those UN experts while you’re here in New York for the UN?” asks Mehdi.
They go on to discuss Kashmir, with Asif suggesting Pakistan’s openness to a possible referendum for Kashmiri independence; the country’s controversial alliance with China and its refusal to condemn the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang; and why he is willing to criticize Israel but not his ally to the East.
Mehdi also pushed the defense minister on his country’s relationship with the US, including its controversial nomination of Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on June 20, one day before the US president ordered a military attack on Iran.
“We have had a transactional or a flirtatious relationship with the United States for a very long time,” the minister tells Mehdi. But as flirty as Pakistan is with the US, Asif says China was, and will continue to be, Pakistan’s top ally: “They’re reliable, and they are our neighbors.”
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