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Mecca Pact Signed
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement in Mecca on Friday, declaring that an armed attack on any one of the three would be treated as an attack on all three.
“No full treaty document has been made public yet.”
The pact was signed at Al-Safa Palace in Mecca, after nearly a year of negotiations, and it was described as a mutual defense arrangement similar to NATO’s Article 5.
The South China Morning Post framed the deal as a signal of a Gulf shift away from Washington’s security umbrella, saying the grand security bargain is widely perceived to be fraying and creating an opening for Beijing to expand its presence in the region.
Hindustan Times reported that no full treaty document has been made public yet and that the joint statement released via the Saudi Press Agency and Pakistan's foreign ministry commits to “collective deterrence against any act of aggression.”
The Jerusalem Post said the pact “doesn’t shut the door completely on normalization” between Riyadh and Jerusalem, while Dr. Yoel Guzansky warned that the Turks and Pakistanis have an anti-Israel stance that might affect Saudi Arabia.
Musical Propaganda
In Pakistan, the agreement’s immediate aftermath was marked by a transfer of musical instruments to Mecca rather than defense equipment, as ThePrint said Pakistan transferred musical instruments and brought out a song within about an hour.
ThePrint quoted journalist Shahbaz Gill warning his audience: “You might laugh, but this is true,” after he said one might have expected “fighter jets, submarines, naval equipment” or “Shaheen and Ghauri missiles” instead.
Gill described a seven-minute-long song celebrating the relationship between the three countries and said it “In Mecca, hearts gathered, longing and loyalty met, and the bond of friendship,” calling the three countries brothers.
ThePrint also reported that Gill said the DG ISPR has its own technicians and singers who create songs in an instant, and it included Gill’s question to the military: “At this point they have a song for everything,” he said.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post reported that Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Pakistan media there should be “a united military front” against Israel, describing it as a “threat to the entire Muslim world.”
Open to Expansion
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the Mecca Defense Co-Defense Pact is not directed against Iran and told Anadolu, “No country that does not attack us will be our target,” while he added that the Islamic Republic “is not the target of this organization.”
“No country that does not attack us will be our target”
Fidan also said the pact is open to other regional countries and indicated that Egypt could join once technical issues are resolved, while he described the agreement as similar to NATO’s Article 5 and said a Ministers’ Committee and a General Secretariat based in Saudi Arabia would be established.
The Associated Press reported that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted that the three countries do not view any particular state as their adversary unless it takes hostile actions against them, saying “Any country that does not attack us is not a target for us.”
DW reported that Fidan said Turkey should participate in an international coalition to protect navigation in the Red Sea from attacks by Houthi militias, with maritime route security described as of interest to Ankara.
In parallel, the South China Morning Post said the pact’s independent alliances among middle powers could complicate matters for countries such as India and prompt it to reassess its own security partnerships.
