Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a collective defence agreement on August 7 in Makkah, binding the three nations to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all — a landmark realignment of Muslim-world security as the US-Iran war reshapes the Gulf.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement at Al-Safa Palace during the "Makkah Al-Mukarramah Summit for Joint Defence." Sealing the pact in Islam's holiest city lent it symbolic weight alongside its strategic heft: Pakistan is the world's only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority state, Turkey fields NATO's second-largest army, and Saudi Arabia is both custodian of Islam's holiest sites and a leading oil exporter.
A joint statement by Pakistan's Foreign Office and Saudi Arabia's SPA news agency said the accord reflects the three countries' "shared commitment to further strengthening their collective security and to promoting peace, security, and stability in the region and beyond," while providing "for the enhancement of all aspects of defence cooperation." Specific military obligations for each party were not detailed.
Iran War Pushes Saudi Arabia To Seek New Guarantors
The pact arrives as Saudi confidence in long-term US protection has eroded. Since US-Israeli strikes on February 28 killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and struck Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, the kingdom has absorbed repeated retaliatory attacks on its energy facilities and civilian infrastructure. An April 8 ceasefire reduced direct Iranian strikes, but Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Iraq have continued targeting Saudi Arabia since.
Days before the summit, CNN reported that a Saudi official said the kingdom was preparing for a large coordinated offensive from Iran-aligned militant groups backed by the IRGC. The Makkah pact answers that threat with deterrence: a major future attack on Saudi Arabia could invoke the collective defence clause, drawing Pakistan and Turkey directly into the conflict.
The trilateral agreement builds on a Saudi-Pakistani bilateral defence pact signed in September 2025. Turkey's accession had been in negotiation since January, when Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara favoured an "inclusive platform that creates wider, bigger cooperation and stability." Defence ties among all three had already been deepening: Saudi Arabia received Pakistani jets and troops in April, and Riyadh had previously signed what Turkey described as its largest-ever defence export contract — covering combat drones — in 2023. Saudi Arabia also launched a separate 14-nation Red Sea maritime coalition on July 30, with Pakistan among its founding members.
Pakistan Walks A Tightrope Between Riyadh And Tehran
Closer security ties with Saudi Arabia complicate Pakistan's other strategic role. Islamabad shares a 900-kilometer border with Iran, has a large Shia population, and has positioned itself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran — brokering an April ceasefire and a June memorandum of understanding before that arrangement collapsed in July after Iran struck commercial shipping.
"The biggest risk is that the current balancing act of Pakistan as a mediator and security provider to Saudi Arabia will come under strain if Iran and its proxies continue attacking Saudi Arabia," Umer Karim of the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies told Al Jazeera. Muhammad Faisal, a University of Technology Sydney researcher on Pakistani foreign policy, told the same outlet that "a sharper Saudi-Iran rivalry would gradually erode this carefully calibrated balancing strategy, forcing Pakistan into difficult trade-offs."
Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir — flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif — attended the signing, reflecting the pact's military dimension and Munir's acknowledged role in brokering it.
Tehran Dismisses Pact As A Paper Guarantee
Iranian parliament member Ebrahim Rezaei was blunt on X: "The Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as decades of one-sided dependence on the Americans failed to do so."
Saudi officials pushed back. Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly wrote that the pact "does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc," is "not linked to any nuclear ambitions or arms race," and "does not constitute a threat to the security of any country in the region." A Turkish official told CNN the agreement is not directed at any specific actor and remains open to new members.
Prime Minister Sharif called the accord a "shield of peace." Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan described it as "an important milestone" reflecting a "shared desire to coordinate efforts to address challenges and threats affecting regional security and stability."
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