The newly signed Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA) between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is causing concerns in India.
Notably, India's response to the Kingdom and the Islamic Republic's defence agreement was full of caution, though the country's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did say that the government was studying the implications of the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact on its national security.
"We have seen reports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The Government was aware that this development, which formalizes a long-standing arrangement between the two countries, had been under consideration. We will study the implications of this development for our national security as well as for regional and global stability. The Government remains committed to protecting India's national interests and ensuring comprehensive national security in all domains," Randhir Jaiswal, the official spokesperson of the MEA, said in a statement.
While alarm bells appear to have rung in India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) following the inking of the agreement between the two Sunni-majority states, the military statistics associated with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan don't look like scaring New Delhi, not at least, on paper.
For instance, Pakistan is ranked 12th globally in the Global Firepower Index 2025, with a Power Index score of 0.2513, while Saudi Arabia is ranked 24th in the same list.
In comparison, Pakistan's arch-foe, India, occupies the fourth spot, behind only the US, Russia, and China in that power index.
Furthermore, there is a stark difference in the number of active and reserve personnel serving the three countries. As of 2025, active and reserve service members in the Indian military stand at 1,455,550 and 1,155,000, respectively.
On the other hand, the strength of Pakistan's active personnel in its armed forces is 654,000, while that of the reserves is 550,000. In contrast, this figure drops to only 257,000 active service members for Saudi Arabia, with nil reserve personnel in its ranks.
India also outnumbers or nearly matches the two Islamic states together in terms of certain ground forces equipment, that is, tanks, armoured vehicles, and towed artillery units. Currently, India operates 4,201 tanks, 148,594 armoured vehicles, and 3,975 towed artillery units.
In comparison, Pakistan has 3,742, and Saudi Arabia has 840, making 4,588 tanks together, which is just a shade above India's number of tanks.
As far as armoured vehicles are concerned, Pakistan has 50,523 of them in addition to Saudi Arabia's 19,040, totalling more than 69,500, nearly 45 percent less than India.
New Delhi is head and shoulders above Islamabad and Riyadh in towed artillery guns, with the South Asian Islamic country having 2,629, and the Gulf state having 467 such weapons.
In addition to having a considerable difference in their land forces, India is well ahead of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in naval as well as air prowess.
For example, the IAF's contingent features a total of 2,229 military aircraft, including 513 fighter planes and 80 attack helicopters, which drops down to 1,399 for Pakistan and 917 for Saudi Arabia. If one talks about combat warplanes and attack helicopters, those figures read like 328 and 57, respectively, for Pakistan, and for Saudi those numbers stand at 283 and 24, in that sequence.
India edges ahead in overall naval assets as well, with 293 ships of various types in its fleet, including frigates, missile destroyers, corvettes, submarines, and aircraft carriers. Notably, the Indian Navy has two functional aircraft carriers, namely INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia do not operate a single aircraft carrier, and neither of the two has a functional nuclear submarine in its navy.