Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye signed their first trilateral defence pact – Makkah Joint Defence Agreement – during a summit in Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), on August 7, 2026. The text of the pact stipulates that Prince MBS, President Erdogan and PM Shehbaz Sharif signed the 'Defence Agreement', "reflecting 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 further states that the Agreement "is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three States shall be regarded as an attack against them all." And the last line reiterates that the Agreement "provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defence cooperation" among these countries.

This Agreement had been in the works for quite some time, following the signing of the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) between Pakistan and KSA on September 17, 2025. SMDA was covered in my opinion pieces, 'Pak-Saudi defence pact: an old brotherhood recast for a dangerous age', published here on September 21, 2025; and 'Pak-Saudi defence pact: necessary elaboration' on September 25, 2025. Diplomatic activity continued among Pakistan, KSA and Türkiye, and the emergence of Quartet (Pakistan, Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye) to facilitate the recent mediatory efforts between the US and Iran further augmented the momentum that resulted in this Agreement. Some pointers.

First, the 'Core Principle' enshrined in the Agreement is 'collective security and mutual defence', patterned after NATO; hence an attack on one is an........

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