Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have created a NATO style defense alliance, the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. DR reports that the pact raises new questions for NATO and for the United States.
The agreement was signed in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to DR, Pakistan’s foreign ministry stated that an external armed attack on one of the three countries will be treated as an attack on all.
Reuters reports that the pact was signed on August 7, 2026, and that the core clause is modeled on NATO’s Article 5. Per AP, the joint statement from the three governments describes the aim as collective deterrence against any act of aggression.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has also compared the alliance to NATO, DR notes. He has said a ministerial committee will be created on the NATO model, along with a general secretariat based in Saudi Arabia.
AP describes the pact as combining Saudi oil wealth, Turkey’s NATO linked military and defense industry, and Pakistan’s nuclear armed forces. Pakistan is the only member with nuclear weapons. Israeli and other international media have called the alliance an “Islamic NATO”, according to DR.
What it means for NATO
Sharif wrote on X shortly after the signing that the agreement does not cancel or replace existing bilateral or multilateral commitments. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a separate defense agreement from last year that remains in force, DR reports.
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David Vestenskov, chief consultant at the Royal Danish Defence College, told DR that Turkey can hold obligations in several alliances at once. The NATO treaty does not in itself bar members from signing defense deals with other states, he said. Problems could arise if Turkey started a war or attacked first, according to Vestenskov.
He added that most NATO countries are likely to see a possible stabilizing effect in a regional security setup. Turkish officials have stressed to Reuters that the agreement is purely defensive and not directed at any specific country.
Why now
Al Jazeera links the timing to the ongoing war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, and to renewed Houthi attacks on Gulf oil infrastructure. DR reports that Houthi forces struck Saudi oil facilities again on Sunday, and that neither Turkey nor Pakistan intervened.
Khalid al-Jaber, director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Doha, wrote in Al Jazeera that the pact is an early attempt to build a third power pole in the region. Reuters and The Hindu note that the full treaty text has not been published, leaving the scope of the obligations unclear.
