Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan to Sign Joint Defence Pact

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are set to sign a joint defence agreement in Mecca on Friday, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, as the region grapples with ongoing turmoil and Gulf states face repeated attacks from Iran following its confrontation with the United States and Israel.

The pact reinforces a growing alliance among major Sunni Muslim powers aligned with Washington, though there is no immediate clarity on the specific commitments each country is making or how the agreement might influence the broader crisis unfolding across the Middle East.

Two regional sources confirmed the signing would take place on Friday, a timeline later corroborated by a Turkish official, though another regional source said it remains unclear whether the agreement will be publicly announced the same day.

The three nations are united by shared concerns over instability in the Middle East, the role of Shi’ite Iran, and an increasingly assertive Israel, at a time when the United States is struggling to contain escalating regional threats. Each country brings significant weight to the pact: Turkey fields NATO’s second-largest military, Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s holiest sites and ranks among the world’s top oil exporters, and Pakistan remains the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, accompanied by army chief Asim Munir, arrived in Jeddah on Thursday and performed Umrah in Mecca, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan departed for Jeddah on Friday. The leaders are scheduled to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country has faced repeated strikes from Iran as well as from Tehran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen and Shi’ite militias in Iraq since the war began on February 28. The conflict has exposed vulnerabilities in Gulf security and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a route that previously carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

The agreement follows nearly a year of negotiations first reported by Reuters in January, when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara was pushing for a broader regional security platform to strengthen cooperation and stability.

It builds on an existing Saudi-Pakistani pact that treats an attack on either nation as an attack on both, encompassing all military means, according to a Saudi official who previously spoke to Reuters.

Despite that arrangement, Pakistan has sought to stay out of direct military involvement in the Iran conflict, instead positioning itself as a potential mediator. Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia, describing it as an effort to consolidate bilateral ties, while both the Pakistani military and Saudi government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new pact adds to nearly three years of regional upheaval that began with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, during which almost every country in the region has experienced cross-border attacks, missile fire or drone strikes.

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Turkey and Pakistan have largely avoided direct attacks but remain eager to help stabilise conflicts threatening their own security and economic interests, while Saudi Arabia has borne the brunt of the fallout, coming under fire from three directions and facing renewed questions about the reliability of its long-standing security relationship with the United States.

Signing the agreement in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, is expected to lend symbolic weight to a partnership rooted in decades of military cooperation, including Pakistan’s long-running training and technical support for Saudi forces and joint exchanges of warships and training aircraft between Turkey and Pakistan.

Riyadh’s 2023 purchase of Turkish drones, described by Ankara as its largest defence export contract to date, further reflects the depth of these ties, alongside Pakistan’s deployment of roughly 8,000 troops, fighter jets, drones and an air-defence system to Saudi Arabia and its ongoing talks with Kuwait over an expanded security and energy partnership.