Pakistan-Somalia defence pact: Is Islamabad preparing to send troops? What we know

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Pakistan and Somalia have struck their broadest defence agreement in more than three decades, sending army, navy and air force commanders into direct talks in Rawalpindi and reopening a military relationship last defined by the bloodshed of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. But despite weeks of speculation over how far that relationship will go, officials on both sides have been explicit about one point: no Pakistani combat troops are being sent to Somalia.

The distinction matters. It separates a story about training academies and naval liaison officers from one about foreign soldiers on Somali soil – and, so far, the record supports only the former.

What was actually signed

The current phase of cooperation began on Aug. 4, when Somalia’s Defence Minister, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, and his Pakistani counterpart, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, signed a memorandum of understanding in Islamabad. Somalia’s Ministry of Defence said the pact covers counterterrorism cooperation, military training programmes and the exchange of military expertise, within a broader framework for defence capacity building between the two countries’ armed forces.

What followed was not the usual quiet aftermath of a diplomatic signing. Two days later, Fiqi led a full defence delegation — including Rear Admiral Abdiwahab Abdullahi Omar, commander of the Somali Navy and Coast Guard — to Pakistan’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi for a direct meeting with Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces. Reporting from Pakistan Today, drawing on a statement from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations directorate, described talks covering “evolving regional security dynamics and measures to further enhance bilateral defence and security cooperation.”

Fiqi’s delegation did not stop there. According to the Rio Times and Somalia Today, the Somali minister also met Admiral Naveed Ashraf, Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Staff, for talks on Indian Ocean maritime security and the rebuilding of Somalia’s navy and coast guard, and Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, who offered training and institutional support to the Somali Air Force. The delegation went on to tour Pakistan’s National Defence University and Global Industrial & Defence Solutions, the state-owned company that markets Pakistani military equipment abroad.

“This is an institutional relationship rather than a deployment,” the Rio Times noted in its account of the visit, adding that the composition of the Somali delegation – service chiefs rather than junior liaison officers – was “a heavier composition than a training discussion requires.”

The question of troops, addressed directly

Multiple outlets that have covered the agreement in detail have converged on the same conclusion: nothing in the public record authorizes a Pakistani troop presence in Somalia. The Rio Times reported plainly that “no base, port access or permission to deploy combat forces has been announced.” The defence-specialist outlet Defence Security Asia went further, writing that “the memorandum does not publicly confirm Pakistani deployments, permanent facilities, weapons transfers or basing access,” and cautioned that “expansive claims about an immediate strategic realignment” remain premature.

Prof. Basim Raza of the NUST Institute of Policy Studies, speaking to Sputnik, said the memorandum does not authorize a permanent Pakistani military base in Somalia, and that the more immediate reality is likely to run in the opposite direction – Somali officers travelling to Pakistan for instruction, rather than Pakistani forces travelling to Somalia. Raza described the arrangement as asymmetrical: Pakistan supplying formal training in intelligence-led counterterrorism, special operations, logistics and communications, while Somalia contributes local intelligence and operational knowledge of the region. He cautioned against describing the pact as a confirmed plan to secure the Bab el-Mandeb strait, calling that framing premature.

The most detailed scrutiny of the deployment question has come, notably, from Indian commentary – where any expansion of Pakistan’s military footprint draws close attention. Gurjit Singh, a former Indian ambassador to Ethiopia, Djibouti and the African Union, examined the relationship for Firstpost and concluded that Pakistan is “unlikely to send large numbers of troops to fight Al-Shabaab.” He argued instead that training, military advice, defence equipment sales and possible air and naval cooperation are the more realistic paths for Pakistan’s role to expand. Somalia Today, reporting on Singh’s analysis, was direct on the underlying fact pattern: “There is no Pakistani military base in Somalia. There has been no confirmed agreement granting the Pakistan Navy permanent access to a Somali port, nor any announced deployment of Pakistani combat forces.”

The unconfirmed jet deal

Running alongside the training relationship is a reported, unconfirmed arms deal. Multiple Somali and regional media outlets reported in February that Mogadishu was advancing talks to acquire up to 24 Pakistani JF-17 Thunder Block III fighter jets, a package other outlets have valued at roughly $900 million. Neither government has confirmed a signed contract, and analysts stress the reported deal sits outside the August memorandum itself. Were it finalized, Defence Security Asia noted, it would become Somalia’s largest defence purchase in decades, requiring pilot training, airbase rehabilitation, weapons integration and financing well beyond what has so far been disclosed.

Why Pakistan is interested now

The timing is not incidental. Pakistan’s outreach to Mogadishu came days before Islamabad joined Saudi Arabia and Türkiye in signing the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, part of a broader push by Pakistan’s military leadership – spearheaded by Field Marshal Munir – to build security relationships across the Gulf, the Red Sea and now the Horn of Africa. Somalia, sitting on the Gulf of Aden approaches to the Bab el-Mandeb strait, offers Islamabad a foothold in one of the world’s busiest and most contested shipping corridors, at a moment when piracy off the Somali coast has returned to its highest level in a decade.

Singh’s analysis for Firstpost frames the move in exactly these terms: not simply another training agreement, but a chance for Pakistan to use defence diplomacy to build a wider strategic role linking the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Pakistan already has deep military relationships with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye – and Türkiye, whose parliament recently extended its own Somalia military mission to 2028, remains by far Somalia’s most deeply embedded foreign military partner, running a major training facility in Mogadishu. Pakistan’s arrival does not replace that relationship; it adds another layer to an increasingly crowded field of foreign security partners inside Somalia.

India is watching

The agreement has registered in New Delhi. Asked about it on Aug. 7, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India was following developments between Somalia and Pakistan “closely,” pointing to India’s own defence and development ties across Africa. India has conducted anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 and treats maritime security off Somalia as a standing national interest rather than a distant concern. Pakistan is India’s principal regional rival and a significant Indian Ocean naval power in its own right, which is why New Delhi’s attention has been drawn less to any single deployment and more to the cumulative pattern – army, navy and air force engagement running in parallel, alongside a reported fighter-jet negotiation.

Somalia, for its part, has continued to describe the relationship in narrower terms. Days after the Rawalpindi meetings, Fiqi met Pakistan’s ambassador to Somalia, Aqsa Nawaz, to discuss implementing the August memorandum – talks that centred, according to reports, on training, capacity-building and the development of the Somali Air Force, with Admiral Ashraf reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening defence ties. Somalia has also kept its relationship with India itself on a separate, cordial track: Somalia’s foreign minister met India’s external affairs minister in New Delhi in January to discuss cooperation on trade, education and health.

The bottom line

Every element of the Pakistan-Somalia defence relationship that has been publicly confirmed – the August memorandum, the Rawalpindi meetings with all three of Pakistan’s service chiefs, the tour of Pakistani defence institutions, the reported jet talks – points toward training, institution-building, equipment sales and maritime cooperation, not the deployment of Pakistani combat troops. That has not stopped the relationship from being read, particularly in New Delhi, as a meaningful strategic shift: a sign that Pakistan is extending its military reach into the Horn of Africa for the first time since its costly UN peacekeeping role in Somalia in the early 1990s. Whether that reach eventually includes Pakistani boots on Somali ground will depend on decisions neither government has yet made public. Somali Guardian will continue to track official statements from Mogadishu and Islamabad and will update this report if that changes.

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