MECCA — Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual-defense pact in Mecca on Friday, declaring that an armed attack on any one of the three states will be treated as an attack on all three, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.
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, who was accompanied by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. It extends a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed in September 2025 into a three-way framework, binding together the Muslim world's largest financial power, its only nuclear-armed state and NATO's second-largest military.
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the pact reflects "the three states' 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." A Turkish official told Reuters the arrangement was "purely defensive in nature."
Why now
The signing follows more than five months of regional turmoil that began Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran. Iran and Iran-backed forces have since struck targets in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and Houthi rebels in Yemen last month declared a "maritime embargo" against the kingdom and hit Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has responded with strikes on Houthi positions and, a week ago, unveiled a 14-country naval coalition to protect shipping through the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. Turkey and Pakistan are members.
What each brings
Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid said the agreement "essentially puts three of the largest Muslim populations together" under a "different security architecture." Pakistan has provided training and technical support to Saudi forces for decades, and Turkey and Pakistan have exchanged warships and training aircraft. Riyadh's 2023 purchase of Turkish drones was, Ankara said at the time, its largest defense export contract on record.
The BBC noted the pact pledges mutual support but "provides no specifics on the obligations of each" party, leaving open how the signatories would coordinate a response to any given attack.
Absent voice
The US State Department's view on the pact was not reflected in the Al Jazeera and BBC reporting available at press time. The three governments are all US security partners; Al Jazeera wrote that the strikes on Saudi Arabia have endangered Saudi oil exports, "raising questions about US security commitments" that Washington has yet to answer publicly.
Erdogan's Mecca stop was his second visit to the kingdom this year and his first since the outbreak of the Iran war. His office had described the trip as a routine one-day working visit; Turkish presidential communications director Burhanettin Duran said before departure that talks would focus on "bilateral relations and regional developments."