The agreement states that an attack on any one of the three countries is an attack against them all, Pakistan says.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a joint defence agreement, deepening security cooperation amid heightened military tensions and conflicts in the Middle East.
In a joint statement published by the official Saudi press agency and Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, the three countries announced the signing of the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement”.
They declared a “shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond, in pursuit of a secure and prosperous future”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
The deal comes a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by powerful army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Saudi Arabia and performed the Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also travelled to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country has been struck repeatedly by Iran, as well as by Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen and Shia armed groups in Iraq, since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
The conflict has imperilled Saudi Arabia’s oil exports and ambitious development plans, and has raised serious questions about the reliability of its longstanding US security umbrella.
The deal follows nearly a year of negotiations. Sealing the agreement in Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest site, adds symbolic heft to a pact that builds on longstanding bilateral military ties.
Pakistan has provided training and technical assistance to Saudi forces for decades, while Turkiye and Pakistan have exchanged warships and training aircraft. In 2023, Riyadh agreed to buy Turkish drones in what Ankara called its largest defence export contract.
‘Not linked to nuclear ambitions’
Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for public diplomacy, Rayed Krimly, said the pact is not a threat to any country in the region. “The agreement does not represent any intention to build a military axis or a sectarian/religious bloc,” he posted on X, adding that it is “not linked to nuclear ambitions or an arms race, but rather to building sustainable, self-reliant capabilities”.
In a post on X, Turkiye’s Erdogan said the deal was signed “based on collective deterrence” and that Ankara would continue “its principled stance toward resolving conflicts and crises through dialogue and diplomacy on the basis of respect for international law”.
Pakistan’s Sharif called the joint pact a “historic endeavour” which serves “the interests of our homelands and enhances the security and stability of our region”.
But Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei warned Riyadh that it would take more than the pact to achieve regional security. In a post on X, he said: “Saudis must know that a paper agreement with Turkiye and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided nursing to the Americans did not bring them security.”
“Reform your policies so that you do not need to beg for security from others,” added Rezaei.
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