By Timour Azhari, Ariba Shahid and Tuvan Gumrukcu
RIYADH/KARACHI/ANKARA, Aug 7 – Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will sign a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, sources with knowledge of the matter said, amid regional turmoil with Gulf states coming under fire from Iran after it was attacked by the U.S. and Israel.
While the pact further cements a burgeoning grouping of major Sunni Muslim powers allied with the United States, there was no immediate clarity on each state’s commitments or how it might affect the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Two regional sources with direct knowledge of the matter said the deal would be signed on Friday, which was later confirmed by a Turkish official. Another regional source said it was not clear whether the agreement would also be publicly announced on Friday.
The three nations share growing concerns over Middle East chaos and the role of revolutionary Shi’ite Iran and an increasingly assertive Israel, as the United States struggles to contain regional threats.
Turkey has NATO’s second-largest military. Saudi Arabia, the strongest Gulf state, is home to Islam’s holiest sites and one of the world’s top oil exporters, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim country.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by powerful army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Jeddah on Thursday and performed the Umrah pilgrimage in Mecca. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan departed for Jeddah on Friday.
They will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country has been repeatedly struck by Iran, as well as by Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen and Shi’ite militia in Iraq, since the war began on February 28.
The conflict has also exposed Gulf states’ security vulnerabilities and disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas transited prior to the war.
Their pact follows nearly a year of negotiations, reported by Reuters in January, when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara favoured a broader regional security platform to promote cooperation and stability.
An existing Saudi-Pakistani pact treats an attack on either as an attack on both and encompasses “all military means”, a Saudi official previously told Reuters. In practice, Pakistan has sought to avoid becoming militarily entangled in the Iran war, instead opting to try to mediate with Iran.
The Pakistani military and government did not immediately respond to requests for comment, though the foreign ministry confirmed the visit to Saudi Arabia and described it as “consolidating” ties with the kingdom. Army chief Munir shapes Pakistan’s foreign and security policy.
Saudi Arabia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PACT BUILDS ON LONGSTANDING MILITARY TIES
The Middle East has been in flames for nearly three years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, with nearly every country in the region experiencing cross-border attacks or missile or drone fire.
While Turkey and Pakistan, on the borders of the Middle East, have avoided significant direct attacks, both are anxious to calm conflicts that threaten their own security and economic health.
For Saudi Arabia, the consequences of three years of Middle East conflicts have been more severe – bringing it under direct fire from three directions, imperiling its oil exports and ambitious development plans and drawing big questions over the reliability of its longstanding U.S. security umbrella.
Sealing Friday’s agreement in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, will add symbolic heft to a pact that builds on longstanding bilateral military ties among the three countries.
Pakistan has provided training and technical assistance to Saudi forces for decades, while Turkey and Pakistan have exchanged warships and training aircraft. In 2023, Riyadh agreed to buy Turkish drones in what Ankara called its largest defence export contract.
Pakistan has since deployed about 8,000 troops, fighter jets, drones and an air-defence system to the kingdom, Reuters reported in May, and has pursued wider Gulf security ties. It has opened negotiations with Kuwait over an expanded pact in exchange for energy cooperation and investment, Reuters reported in July.
(By Ariba Shahid, Timour Azhari, Daren Butler and Maha El-Dahan; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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