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A joint statement issued by the Saudi Press Agency and Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed the signing of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement by the three leaders during a summit held in Mecca. The pact commits the parties to strengthening collective security and deterrence while promoting peace stability and prosperity across the region and beyond. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz hailed the accord as a historic step for regional security and stressed that it was not aimed at any specific country.
Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for public diplomacy Rayed Krimly stated that the agreement does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or sectarian bloc nor is it linked to nuclear ambitions or an arms race. Krimly added that the focus instead rests on building sustainable self-reliant defence capabilities among the three nations. The statement further clarified that the pact seeks to enhance cooperation across all aspects of defence without abrogating existing bilateral agreements.
This trilateral framework extends the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan concluded in September 2025 Reuters reported at the time of that earlier signing. Pakistan has provided military training technical assistance and limited troop deployments to Saudi Arabia for decades according to multiple assessments of their longstanding partnership. The inclusion of Türkiye adds NATO’s second-largest military along with advanced drone technology and a defence industry that has exported systems to Riyadh in recent years.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the new pact as a historic endeavour that serves the interests of the participating homelands while enhancing regional security and stability. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that the deal rests on principles of collective deterrence and that Ankara would maintain its stance in favour of resolving conflicts through dialogue and respect for international law. The leaders gathered in Mecca a day after Sharif performed Umrah in the holy city.
The agreement emerges amid prolonged regional turmoil that has included Houthi attacks on shipping and the consequences of strikes on Iran earlier in 2026 as covered by Reuters and Al Jazeera. A senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute told Al Jazeera that the pact combines complementary strengths from Pakistan’s nuclear-armed forces Türkiye’s drone capabilities and Saudi economic resources. The chairman of the Gulf Research Center assessed that the framework could foster a more regionally driven approach to security architecture.
