Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in the Saudi city of Mecca on Friday to sign a pact called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
Among other provisions, the agreement calls on all three countries to respond to an attack on any of them — a clause the Saudis might be able to invoke almost immediately as they have been suffering drone and missile strikes from Iran and its terrorist proxy in Yemen, the Houthis.
The Saudi military said on Thursday that 11 civilians were injured by “terrorist attacks using indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects” from the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia is the wealthiest of the three nations, but it has been fairly passive in the face of attacks from Iran and Yemen. Turkey arguably has the most powerful armed force in the Middle East, and the second-largest army in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while Pakistan is a nuclear power.
“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. It further provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defense cooperation among the three States,” said a joint statement from the three countries on Friday.
“The agreement does not represent any orientation toward building a military axis or sectarian/religious bloc, and it is not linked to nuclear endeavors or an arms race, but rather to building sustainable self-reliant capabilities,” said a separate statement from Saudi Arabia.
“The agreement does not come at the expense of the Kingdom’s strategic and strong relations at the Gulf, Arab, and international levels,” the Saudis also added.
Turkey insisted the agreement is “purely defensive in nature,” and the three nations are not aligned against “any specific actor.”
Iran nevertheless criticized the mutual defense pact, with parliamentary security leader Ebrahim Rezaei hissing that the Saudis should not bank on their new partners protecting them against Iranian terrorism.
“The Saudis should know that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided ‘milking’ by the Americans did not bring them security. Change your policies so that you do not have to beg for security from others,” Rezaei taunted.
Saudi Arabia already has a mutual defense agreement with Pakistan, signed in September 2025. It was seemingly intended to intimidate Israel, which had just eliminated several Hamas leaders who were hiding in Qatar. Pakistan has yet to assist Saudi Arabia against attacks from Iran, and has presented itself as a “neutral mediator” between Iran and the United States.
Pakistan and Turkey both responded positively last week to Saudi Arabia’s initiative for creating a “maritime coalition” to protect shipping in the Red Sea. The Saudis said representatives from 43 countries attended the inaugural meeting of the coalition in Riyadh, and 14 of them issued a joint statement affirming their commitment to security in the Red Sea, but so far no military deployments have been announced.
Middle East researcher Burcu Ozcelik of the Royal United Services Institute said the new trilateral agreement would give Turkey “significant opportunities to deepen its defence-industrial footprint through joint production, technology partnerships, procurement, and greater military interoperability.”
Other analysts suggested the three countries have some mutual defense interests, but also very different concerns, as Turkey is most worried about Israel, Saudi Arabia is under attack from Iran, and Pakistan is feuding with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The other members of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement do not seem eager to get involved in Turkey’s territorial arguments with Greece, or Pakistan’s rivalry with India.
“This is a reflection of their growing desire for greater regional stability. They see state fragmentation, civil conflict, an environment of non-state actors as sources of instability,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli of the German Marshall Fund.
The leftist outlet New York Times (NYT) reported that Egypt “participated in early discussions” about the joint defense agreement, but was not involved in the signing on Friday. A Turkish official said there would be opportunities for other regional powers to join the defense agreement.