Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a trilateral defence agreement, deepening security cooperation amid heightened military tensions across the Middle East.
The agreement, named the ‘Mecca Joint Defence Agreement’, was signed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. A joint statement shared by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Saudi state media confirmed that an armed attack on any one of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all three.The statement says the pact reflects the three states’ shared commitment to strengthening collective security and promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the region and beyond.
The signing came a day after Prime Minister Sharif, accompanied by army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Saudi Arabia and performed the Umrah pilgrimage. Erdogan also travelled to the kingdom on Aug. 7 to meet the Crown Prince, whose country has faced repeated strikes from Iran, Houthi forces in Yemen and Shia armed groups in Iraq, following US and Israeli military action against Iran on Feb. 28. These conflicts have threatened Saudi Arabia’s oil exports and its ambitious development plans, raising serious questions about the reliability of its longstanding US security umbrella.The deal follows nearly a year of negotiations. Sealing it in Makkah adds considerable symbolic weight to the pact.