Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan deepen security ties with defence pact

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a joint defence agreement on Friday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, as the three countries sought to deepen security cooperation amid heightened military tensions and conflicts in the Middle East.

The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, they said in a joint statement. 

While the statement did not give specifics on the commitments or obligations each had accepted under what it called the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, it said the pact was aimed at strengthening their collective security and promoting peace, security and stability in the region and beyond. 

A Turkish official said the agreement was defensive in nature, was not directed against any specific actor, was open to other regional countries, and did not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral arrangements. 

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.

(By Timour Azhari, Ariba Shahid, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Samia Nakhoul; Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Maha El-Dahan; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Sharon Singleton)