On 7 August 2026, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, adding a new dimension to their existing defence partnerships and accelerating the ongoing transformation of regional and global geopolitics. To assess the significance of this historic agreement and expectations for the future, the Ankara Center for Crisis and Policy Studies (ANKASAM) presents its interview with Syed Raza Abbas, Research Officer at the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI).
1. Pakistan already had long-standing defense ties with both Saudi Arabia and Türkiye before the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on 7 August 2026. In your view, what new dimension does the trilateral framework add to these existing bilateral relationships?
Pakistan has maintained long-standing strategic ties with both Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. Both of these countries are only two among the Muslim countries that have always supported Pakistan diplomatically, politically, economically, and militarily during tumultuous times. The Makkah defense agreement reflects the signatories’ historical ties and shared understanding of the region’s evolving geopolitics and threat matrix. Pakistan has maintained a troop presence in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s and has signed a bilateral security framework with Saudi Arabia in 1982 to provide operational support, training, and advisory services. Pakistan has also pledged to protect the two holiest sites of Islam, Mecca and Madina, after the unfortunate memories of the 1979 Mecca siege. Pakistan-Türkiye defense ties have evolved and grown manifold in recent years and have primarily focused on the joint production of naval platform’s, unmanned aerial systems, fifth-generation fighter aircraft, and deep diplomatic alignment.
The trilateral framework introduces three new dimensions to the existing framework:
I. Trilateral Synchronization: The agreement can provide a framework for trilateral synchronization during the time of regional tensions and contingencies. Previously, Islamabad had to liaise separately with Ankara and Riyadh during a crisis, but a centralized headquarters in Riyadh would provide a hub for fusion. Pakistan would be able to participate in a synchronized architecture that prevents fragmented responses during regional contingencies.
II. Formalized Mutual Security Guarantees: By establishing a mutual security posture, the agreement codifies a higher threshold of deterrence against various threats. The technicalities and protocols of the agreement remain vague due to the evolving threat perception and fluid regional situation in West Asia. But still, the agreement’s objectives and shared parameters raise the cost for any adversary seeking to target a single signatory.
III. Institutionalized Infrastructure: The agreement also provides a joint coordinating mechanism, paired with joint ministerial summits, that elevates the transactional project-based cooperation into a binding and enduring partnership capable of long-term planning and defense policy harmonization.
2. Given the different strategic capabilities and security experiences of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, in which areas do you see the greatest potential for practical defence cooperation under the new framework?
The primary strength of this tripartite agreement lies in the niche capabilities that each signatory brings to the table and how well they can be fused to achieve the desired objectives. Saudi Arabia will remain central to actualizing the potential of this agreement, with its critical financial resources and pivotal geographic footprint. Pakistan has decades of warfighting experience, ranging from non-state actors to major state actors, and a diversified defense industrial base. Türkiye has a rapidly advancing defense industry, especially in emerging military tech and high-tech military hardware.
The most viable avenues for defense cooperation under the Mecca Agreement could be defense industry co-development and joint manufacturing; integrated air defense, electronic warfare and counter-drone capabilities; maritime security; and chokepoint defense critical for energy supplies and freedom of navigation. Turkish Foreign Minister H.E. Hakan Fidan mentioned in an interview that the Mecca agreement has been under consideration since December 2023, and it took almost 2 years and 8 months of diplomatic hard work to materialize this framework.
The agreement should be seen in the backdrop of the ongoing US/Israeli imposed war on Iran. To go back further, this agreement also has a connection with the Israeli military operation in Gaza after the October 7 attack. The indiscriminate use of force by Israel created conducive environment for the horizontal proliferation of the conflict, and right now the Middle East is just a few escalatory ladders away from a regional war. The immediate aim of the Mecca agreement seems to be to subside the looming clouds of a regional war, and the practical defense cooperation would require more time and military engagement.
Pakistan, Türkiye, and Saudi Arabia’s armed forces conduct regular joint drills, participate in multilateral exercises, and exchange troops. Pakistan is well positioned in this regard, since the Pakistani military has a decades-old institutional relationship and understanding with both the Turkish and Saudi armed forces.
Another avenue for future defense cooperation could be the co-production of air defense systems, electronic warfare equipment, and anti-drone systems. Both Pakistan and Türkiye have robust defense industries and skilled manpower, while Saudi Arabia can provide the financial capital needed to manufacture these new systems. The co-production element will reduce the dependency of respective countries on Western and other foreign suppliers, which are not insulated from sanctions and political conditions.
On the free flow of trade, energy supply, and chokepoint security, the Mecca Agreement offers a regional security architecture without the involvement of foreign players, which complicates the delicate regional balance in the Middle East. The ongoing war has exposed the vulnerability of maritime chokepoints, and the aftershocks have been felt by the global economy, with soaring inflation and broken supply chain of goods caused by the lack of energy supplies and maritime blockades. Under the Mecca framework a naval task force can be created with regional representation to ensure the freedom of navigation at critical chokepoints.
The challenging task for the respective countries would be to achieve interoperability between their military hardware, since Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Türkiye operate diverse platforms that are predominantly Western but also include Chinese and Russian systems, with a limited degree of indigenization.
3. Looking ahead, could the agreement develop into broader mechanism for regional security coordination, or do you expect its role to remain primarily focused on cooperation among the three signatories?
Turkish President H.E Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Mecca agreement does not target any country and is open to participation for other friendly countries. On similar lines, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the Mecca agreement remains open to any country in the region willing to uphold its fundamental principles. Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Riyadh Krimly said that “The defense agreement signed on Friday between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan is not an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc,” nor is it linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race; rather, it is focused on building sustainable capabilities.”
In the short to medium term, the agreement will primarily focus on internal consolidation, establishing command-and-control protocols, seamless intelligence-sharing, standardizing communication networks, building a defense industrial supply chain base, and ensuring interoperability among the founding members. Any attempt to expand the agreement prematurely without establishing operational synergy could compromise the agreement’s desired objectives, which is collective deterrence.
In the longer term, the agreement can be extended to other regional countries willing to join, as evident from the statements of officials. As I mentioned earlier in an answer to your second question, the primary aim of this agreement seems to be to avoid a regional war, and there is consensus among experts on this point: the Middle East requires a new security architecture and a framework, since the old one has not been able to deliver.
Gulf states hosted US bases and invested their financial capital into US weaponry and security guarantees, but the US has not been able to uphold its commitment, either because of capacity issues since Iran opened multiple fronts or because it preferred to protect Israel instead of GCC states. The US was also unable to ensure freedom of navigation at maritime chokepoints during the war, which caused the Gulf economies to suffer acutely, as they are heavily dependent on the export of energy products.
The Mecca agreement is a step forward in the direction of creating a new security framework with regional ownership in which the US might remain a significant supplier of military equipment, but its direct involvement will remain minimal. The agreement will remain open to other friendly states such as Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, and others, but the levers of the framework will remain in the hands of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan.
