Islamabad, Aug 07: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye on Friday signed a landmark trilateral defence agreement under which an armed attack against any one of the three countries will be treated as an attack against all, significantly deepening military cooperation among the three Muslim-majority nations amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement” was signed in Mecca by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the Makkah Joint Defence Summit. Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir was also present at the high-level meeting.
According to the three governments, the agreement aims to strengthen collective deterrence, enhance regional security and institutionalise closer defence cooperation. Besides the mutual defence clause, the pact provides for expanded joint military exercises, intelligence sharing, defence technology collaboration and closer coordination between the armed forces of the three countries. Officials said the arrangement is defensive in nature and is not directed against any specific country.
The agreement follows nearly a year of negotiations and comes against the backdrop of heightened regional instability after the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States, renewed missile and drone threats from Iran-backed groups, and growing concerns over the security of Gulf states and critical maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz.
The three countries bring considerable strategic weight to the partnership. Turkiye has NATO’s second-largest military, Saudi Arabia is the Gulf’s largest economy and custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, while Pakistan is the world’s only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority nation with longstanding defence ties to Riyadh.
Officials said the agreement is open to participation by other regional countries in the future, although no timeline or mechanism for expansion has been announced. The detailed operational commitments under the pact have not yet been made public. (Reuters/AP)
