Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan Sign Joint Defence Pact
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- Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, stipulating that any armed attack on one will be regarded as an attack on all three, with no specifics on each country's obligations.
- The pact was announced at a meeting in Mecca between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and expands a bilateral Saudi-Pakistan defence pact signed last year.
- Each nation brings a distinct strategic asset to the alliance: Saudi Arabia's financial power and large weapons purchases, Turkey's status as NATO's second-largest military with advanced defence production, and Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
- A Turkish official told Reuters the agreement is "purely defensive in nature," reflecting the three Sunni-majority states' stated intent to strengthen "collective deterrence against any act of aggression."
- Pakistan has hosted ceasefire negotiations between Iran and the US and acted as an intermediary, while Saudi Arabia — which had largely stayed out of the conflict — carried out joint strikes last month with the US on Iranian proxy militias in Iraq after being attacked from three sides.
- Yemen's Houthi rebels declared a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia last month and targeted its airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, prompting Saudi Arabia to form a new naval coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
- The pact is driven by the US-Iran war, which has drawn Saudi Arabia in and disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping channel, and the Red Sea, with Iran and its allies blockading shipments after the 28 February US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Why it matters: The pact formalizes a Sunni-majority security bloc uniting Saudi financial power, Turkish conventional military strength, and Pakistani nuclear deterrence — three countries that cannot individually contain Iran's network of proxies but together present a more unified deterrent. Pakistan's role as both a diplomatic intermediary hosting US-Iran ceasefire talks and a military ally in this pact reveals a deliberate hedging strategy in a region being reshaped by the broader US-Iran conflict.
