Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign Mecca joint defence agreement

Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan announced the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, saying it would strengthen collective deterrence and treat an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all.

Defence clause

In a joint statement, the three countries said the agreement was intended to reinforce collective security and promote peace, security and stability in the region and beyond.

The statement did not specify the commitments or obligations accepted by each country under the pact.

A Turkish official said the agreement included a collective defence clause and was “purely defensive in nature”, providing mutual support only for defence.

The official added that the agreement was not directed against any specific actor, was open to other regional countries and did not replace or abrogate existing bilateral or multilateral arrangements.

Regional security concerns

The three countries are concerned by what they see as increasingly aggressive military positions by Israel and revolutionary Shi’ite Iran, while the United States, their longtime ally, struggles to contain regional instability.

Iran and its allies have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading energy shipments since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, an escalation following years of regional turmoil.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly been struck by Iran, Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen and Shi’ite militias in Iraq since the war began on February 28.

Summit participants

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by army chief Asim Munir, performed the Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca before Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan arrived.

They met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the summit.

Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Saudi-based Gulf Research Center, said the meeting carried significant political symbolism, bringing together three influential Muslim-majority states during heightened uncertainty.

He said that if institutionalised and translated into concrete cooperation, the trilateral framework could strengthen the countries’ diplomatic and defence weight and contribute to a more regionally driven security architecture.

Turkey has NATO’s second-largest military, Saudi Arabia is a leading Gulf state, home to Islam’s holiest sites and one of the world’s largest oil exporters, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim country.