Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkiye adopt Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye have signed a trilateral security pact in Mecca under which an armed attack on any one of them would be treated as an attack on all three, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The document, named the Mecca Joint Deterrence Agreement, was signed on Friday by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif had arrived in the kingdom a day earlier together with army chief Asim Munir and performed the Umrah pilgrimage. Erdogan traveled to Saudi Arabia on the day of the signing.
In a joint statement, the three governments presented the agreement as a collective deterrent against acts of aggression.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the pact is guided by long-standing ties among the three states and builds on their shared strategic interests and existing defense cooperation. According to the ministry, the document reflects a commitment to strengthening collective security and to promoting peace and stability in the region and beyond.
The three countries carry significant weight individually. Turkiye maintains the second-largest armed forces in NATO, Saudi Arabia is the world's leading oil exporter, and Pakistan is the only Muslim-majority country that possesses nuclear weapons. The trilateral document is understood to build on defense arrangements already in place between Ankara and Islamabad, and it is described by the signatories as defensive in nature and open to other countries of the region.
Cooperation among the three capitals has developed in stages. Their foreign ministers met in Riyadh on March 19 during an Islamic summit, where the outlines of a joint security arrangement were discussed. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already concluded a bilateral defense agreement in September 2025, shortly after an Israeli strike on the Qatari capital, Doha.
The signing comes against the background of continued fighting involving the U.S., Israel and Iran, and of disruption around the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, which hosts U.S. military assets, has been targeted during the escalation, as have several other states in the region that host U.S. facilities.
Iran's leadership has issued no official response to the pact. Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei criticized the deal in a post on X, saying that an agreement on paper with Turkiye and Pakistan would not bring security to Saudi Arabia and urging Riyadh to revise its policies.
Neither the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Israeli Foreign Ministry has commented on the agreement.
Speaking in Istanbul alongside Sharif in early July, Erdogan said efforts to bring peace to the Middle East would not succeed without regional support, and stated that Israel should not be allowed to undermine the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding signed on June 17 to halt fighting and create room for negotiations. Pakistan, for its part, has taken on a mediating role in the confrontation between the U.S., Israel and Iran, while condemning Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Earlier, Qazinform reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Arman Issagaliyev met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia for International Multilateral Affairs Abdulrahman Al-Rassi.
