RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 16 sourcesx whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info By Priyanka Shankar Published On 7 Aug 2026 7 Aug 2026 Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a joint defence pact as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate with the United States and Israel’s war on Iran .
The agreement, called the Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement, was signed in the Saudi holy city of Mecca on Friday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The pact is intended to provide a collective deterrence against any act of aggression by stipulating that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, the partners said jointly.
In a statement of its own, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the joint defence deal signed was “guided by the longstanding historical ties among the three states, based on the enduring bonds of brotherhood and Islamic solidarity that unite them, and building upon their shared strategic interests and longstanding defence cooperation”.
The agreement 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”, it added.
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.
Here’s what we know about what this pact contains:
The defence agreement between Ankara, Riyadh and Islamabad has been in the making for some time. Negotiations began soon after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the onset of the subsequent Israeli genocide in Gaza, and gained pace amid the US and Israel’s ongoing war on Iran.
While Turkiye and Pakistan have not been directly impacted by tensions in the region so far, Saudi Arabia, which hosts US military assets and infrastructure, has come under attack from Iran and its allies, the Houthis in Yemen . Tehran has also attacked other Gulf nations and Jordan, which also host US military assets.
But the three nations have been particularly concerned about the impact of Iran’s war and Israel’s growing influence – and attacks – on the region. Israel has occupied roughly one-fifth of Lebanon as it allegedly targets strongholds of the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran. Meanwhile, Iran-backed groups in Iraq have been accused of carrying out drone attacks in Saudi Arabia and have, themselves, come under fire from US and Israeli attacks.
Reporting from Ankara, Turkiye, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said that, according to officials there, the escalating regional tensions have indeed forced the countries to come together.
“Post-October 7 has changed the region dramatically, with the Israeli actions and expansionism. And now there is the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and ongoing attacks on Iran, as well as Iran’s response to the regional countries,” he said.
“So there have been several layers of necessity converging, and forcing these three big countries to come together and sign this binding agreement,” he added.
On March 19 this year, the foreign ministers of Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia met in Riyadh during an Islamic summit, in which they discussed what a joint security agreement could look like.
Before this meeting, in September 2025, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia also signed a mutual defence agreement. The agreement came in the wake of an Israeli attack on the Qatari capital, Doha, on September 9, 2025.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ South and Wider Europe office and the regional director for Turkiye, told Al Jazeera that this defence deal reflects a growing desire for greater regional strategic autonomy at a time when confidence in the existing security order has eroded.
“The three countries also share a broadly state-centric view of regional stability. Despite their differences, they tend to see strong central governments, territorial integrity, and functioning state institutions as the foundation of order, while viewing state fragmentation, civil conflict, and the empowerment of non-state actors as sources of long-term instability,” he said.
The trilateral deal is understood to build on a pact already in place between Ankara and Islamabad. It will harness the military and financial strengths of each country, analysts say. While Turkiye has NATO’s second-largest military, Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil exporter, and Pakistan is the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons.
Unluhisarcikli said the three partners bring complementary strengths, “including Turkey’s defence-industrial capabilities, Saudi financial muscle and influence, and Pakistan’s military experience and strategic deterrent”.
“It should be noted that this is a framework for closer strategic, military, and defence-industrial coordination among three influential regional powers and not a mutual defence pact that can be compared to NATO,” he added.
Murat Aslan, an associate professor of international politics at Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep, Turkiye, told Al Jazeera the pact can also be expected to cover “capacity building”.
“We know that Saudi Arabia is dependent on importing their defence products, weapons or equipment, especially from the United States for decades, and we know that it’s not cost-effective and they need to build their own defence sector inside Saudi Arabia,” Aslan said.
“Turkiye and Saudi Arabia share two different issues: First of all, Iran, and you can add Pakistan to that… have shared borders and there is a great sense of threat in the minds of Saudis that Iran may have an impact on their...
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