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Symbolic image: Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign mutual defence pactSymbolic image

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign mutual defence pact

17 sources

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a trilateral defence pact in Mecca on Friday. It declares an armed attack on any one of the three an attack on all.

What happened

  • Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the text, called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
  • Pakistan's foreign ministry says the aim is stronger collective deterrence; concrete support measures were not spelled out, FAZ reports.
  • Riyadh and Islamabad already agreed a bilateral defence pact in September 2025 with partly identical wording.
  • After Saudi Arabia came under fire in the Iran war, Pakistan supplied fighter jets, pilots and a Chinese HQ-9 air-defence system, per FT.
  • Saudi and US forces bombed Iraq on 29 July, hitting what they called militias behind strikes on Saudi oil sites.

The view from outside

Le Monde quotes King's College analyst Andreas Krieg calling the pact the clearest sign yet that the Middle East is drifting away from a security order organised solely by Washington. FAZ, alone among the sources, recalls repeated accusations by Western militaries and intelligence services that Riyadh financed Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

What could happen next

  • Whether attacks launched from Iraq would trigger the pact is unclear; the New York Times says its practical workings remain undefined.
  • FT cites an anonymous source calling the deal a prelude to further Saudi military action against the Houthis.
  • Reuters reported on Thursday that Saudi Arabia had detected drone and missile movements possibly pointing to imminent attacks.
How the camps see it

  • Saudi Arabia: Says the pact targets no country in the region and denies any link to nuclear ambitions, while seeking security partners beyond Washington.

  • Turkey: Its government disinformation unit says the deal does not contradict existing alliance commitments including NATO and complements regional security.

  • Pakistan: Presents the agreement as collective deterrence, but resists being drawn deeper into the Iran war, citing its large Shiite minority.

  • Iran: A member of parliament's national security committee dismissed it as a paper agreement that will not bring the Saudis security.

Also involved

United States

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