Egypt and Pakistan Deepen Defence Cooperation in Cairo Meetings

Overview: Cairo–Islamabad Military Ties Enter a New Phase

On 24 October 2025, Egypt’s senior defence leadership held high-level talks with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, reviewing bilateral defence cooperation, training, and counter-terrorism coordination.
The meetings, held in Cairo, underline both countries’ intent to expand defence collaboration across doctrinal, industrial, and operational domains.

The engagement reflects Cairo’s ongoing diversification strategy — strengthening partnerships beyond its traditional Western and Russian suppliers — while Islamabad seeks to enhance its defence export profile and training partnerships within the Arab and African security spheres.

Strategic Significance: Realignment in Egypt’s Defence Diplomacy

The renewed defence dialogue comes amid Egypt’s broader defence diversification policy, which prioritizes multi-vector partnerships to reduce single-supplier dependency.

Over the past five years, Egypt has increasingly balanced its defence relations among the United States, Russia, France, China, and now South Asia, cultivating strategic flexibility in both procurement and doctrine.
By engaging Pakistan — a nuclear-armed state with extensive experience in counterinsurgency and defence manufacturing — Cairo signals an intention to build operational synergies rooted in shared regional security challenges.

This partnership also underscores Egypt’s pivot toward South–South defence diplomacy, consistent with its growing engagement within the BRICS+ framework, of which Egypt became a member in early 2024.

Areas of Cooperation: From Training to Defence Industry

The Cairo meetings yielded a renewed commitment to structured cooperation in several priority areas:

• Joint Training and Doctrine Exchange: Expanded officer exchange programs and joint exercises focusing on asymmetric warfare, desert operations, and border security.
• Defence Industry Collaboration: Exploration of co-production opportunities in armoured vehicles, small arms, and avionics, leveraging Pakistan’s defence industrial base and Egypt’s emerging manufacturing clusters.
• Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Sharing: Enhanced coordination on extremist threat monitoring and counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Device) expertise.
• Maritime Security: Preliminary discussions on Red Sea–Arabian Sea naval collaboration and coordinated patrols to secure critical maritime trade routes.

Egypt and Pakistan agreed to institutionalize these initiatives through an annual Defence Cooperation Committee, alternating meetings between Cairo and Islamabad.

Military Doctrine Alignment: Learning from Parallel Experiences

Both militaries share extensive experience in managing asymmetric security environments:

• Egypt’s armed forces continue to combat insurgent networks in the Sinai Peninsula, while maintaining readiness along its western and southern borders.
• Pakistan faces cross-border militant activity and internal counter-terrorism challenges across multiple regions.

The dialogue included technical sessions on joint doctrine development, covering Counter-Insurgency (COIN) operations, urban warfare, and cyber-defence preparedness.
By exchanging lessons learned, both sides aim to enhance interoperability and foster a shared approach to hybrid threat management.

Industrial and Economic Dimensions

Defence industry cooperation is increasingly seen as a vehicle for economic diversification in both countries.
Pakistan’s state-owned manufacturers, such as the Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), are exploring partnerships with Egypt’s Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) and National Organization for Military Production (NOMP).

Potential benefits include:

• Co-production of equipment for regional markets in Africa and the Middle East.
• Technology transfer to boost Egypt’s domestic production capacity.
• Reduced dependency on Western components amid global supply chain constraints.
• Job creation and export opportunities within Egypt’s emerging defence industrial base.

If implemented, these partnerships could position Cairo as a regional hub for mid-tier defence manufacturing, while offering Pakistan new market access in North and West Africa.

Geopolitical Context: Positioning in a Multipolar Defence Market

The Egypt–Pakistan engagement must be viewed within the broader shift toward multipolar defence partnerships.
As the global arms market tightens amid ongoing conflicts in Eastern Europe and rising Indo-Pacific demand, states like Egypt are diversifying suppliers to secure procurement stability and political autonomy.

Islamabad, in turn, seeks to broaden its export footprint and leverage its relationships with Gulf and African states to reinforce Pakistan’s role as a reliable South-South defence partner.
This alignment offers both strategic depth and economic opportunity in a defence landscape increasingly defined by regional co-production and strategic autonomy.

ASA Assessment: Implications and Outlook

African Security Analysis (ASA) assesses the Cairo meetings as a strategically significant step toward consolidating long-term defence ties between Egypt and Pakistan.

Short-Term Outlook (0–12 months):

• Expansion of officer exchange programs and continuation of joint training exercises under existing bilateral frameworks.
• Renewed focus on border management, counter-terrorism doctrine, and technology transfer discussions.

Medium-Term Outlook (12–36 months):

• Possible launch of joint manufacturing projects under AOI-POF partnership.
• Integration of Pakistani tactical doctrine into Egyptian special forces and anti-terror training schools.
• Increased coordination in multilateral security forums, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS+ defence dialogues.

ASA anticipates that Cairo’s diversified defence partnerships will enhance its strategic autonomy, while Islamabad strengthens its position as a key defence collaborator in Africa and the Arab world.

Conclusion: Diversification and Strategic Resilience

The latest Egypt–Pakistan defence consultations demonstrate how bilateral cooperation can bridge regions through shared strategic interests.
By deepening collaboration across training, intelligence, and industrial capacity, both nations are laying the groundwork for sustainable defence interdependence that enhances their resilience amid global supply volatility.

For Egypt, the initiative reinforces its emergence as a regional defence hub and policy actor capable of balancing ties with multiple blocs.
For Pakistan, it opens a new frontier in defence diplomacy and export diversification, expanding its influence beyond South Asia into Africa and the Middle East.

Together, they embody a growing trend in South–South strategic convergence — reshaping global defence relations through mutual capability-building rather than dependency.