Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign Mecca Joint Defence Agreement

On 7 August 2026, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The pact pledges to strengthen collective deterrence and treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all of them. It builds on the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed in September 2025, and adds Türkiye as a third member. Turkish officials said the deal followed more than two years of discussions.

The signatories did not publish an official text, so analysts relied on reports that it contains a clause similar to NATO's Article 5, the alliance's mutual defence provision. Turkish officials stressed that the agreement is not an alternative to NATO, of which Türkiye is a member.

The signing mattered because it linked three large Muslim-majority military powers in a formal defence arrangement. It also required approval by each country's legislature, which is why Türkiye's parliament later took up the ratification bill.