Rama Krishna Sangem
Is Pakistan actively building Islamic NATO, a new strategic defence bloc comprising Islamic countries? Answer appears to be Yes, going by hectic lobbying among some major Islamic countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye since recently. Though a specific name and shape of this bloc is still not yet been announced, steps are taken in this direction. If this bloc follows the charter of NATO, any military attack on an Islamic country would be treated as attack on each and every member of them.
NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, that comprises 32 Western countries including the US, formed just after the World War-II in 1949 is one such strong military alliance in the world. Article 5 of NATO clearly says an armed attack against any one member state shall be considered an attack against them all. This single provision of NATO charter made it a powerful military alliance in the world and many rich but militarily weak countries like Sweden, Norway were eager to join it.
Russia war on Ukraine is because of this. As Ukraine applied for a membership in NATO, Russia feared it would have a NATO nation as its immediate border sharing neighbour and it doesn’t want it to happen. Now same thing will happen with this Islamic NATO too. If it takes shape, any India- Pakistan military conflict will draw all member states of this bloc into it. So, India will have to face the combined military force of these nations.
Saudi-Pakistan deal in Sept 2025
Origins of this Islamic NATO laid with a defence deal between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in September 2025. Saudi took initiative to this after Israel fired missiles against Qatar, apparently on a target linked to Palestine militant group, Hamas. But, this attack created panic among all Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They thought they had no security from Israel and wanted to enter into some sort of defence pact with a nuclear country – that is Pakistan.
Pakistan, which claimed to have a proven nuclear weapon capability, is now offering shield to these Islamic countries. If Turkiye’s efforts bear fruit, this Islamic NATO, in size at least, will be bigger than the NATO. If NATO has 32 member states, its Islamic version bloc can have more countries. There are 53 Muslim countries in the world with a total population of 200 crore. Of them, 85 per cent of them are Sunnis and 15 per cent Shiites.
Of course, all of them may not join this military bloc, but a good number of them may. Pakistan which has long running enmity with India is keen on building a powerful Islamic military bloc as it alone cannot taken on its bigger Eastern neighbour. This is proved last year’s Operation Sindoor. This is the reason why India hastily entered into a defence pact with UAE on January 19, Monday, 2026. India will not rest with this and it will enter into many such deals with other powerful Muslim countries too, to check Pakistan.
