‘Attack on one to be treated as attack on all’: Pak, Saudi, Turkiye sign joint defence pact

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye on Friday signed a joint defence agreement stipulating that an attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all three, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement in Mecca, the Foreign Office said.

The pact was signed during the Makkah Al-Mukarramah Summit for Joint Defence.
According to the Foreign Office, the agreement is “intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three States shall be regarded as an attack against them all”.

The agreement establishes a collective defence commitment among the three countries in the event of an armed attack on any one of them.
The pact would link three of the region’s largest countries, each with unique advantages.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is the Arab world’s only G20 economy and home to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam. Pakistan is the Muslim-world’s only nuclear-armed state.
Turkey, which straddles Asia and Europe, boasts Nato’s second-largest army.

Both Islamabad and Ankara are emerging as major weapons manufacturers and exporters. Pakistan is historically close to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but the latter two countries have not always seen eye-to-eye.

Turkey’s President Erdogan backed popular protests following the Arab Spring that Riyadh saw as a threat to its monarchical system of governance.

A decade ago, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined forces to battle Turkey in Libya.

They also supported Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former general whom Erdogan once denounced. But the region’s alliances have whipsawed.

Erdogan and Sisi are moving closer amid joint concerns over Israel’s war on Gaza – recognised as a genocide by the United Nations – and broader attacks on Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Saudi Arabia and Turkey began patching up ties around 2021.