Turkey Says New Mecca Defense Pact Targets No Specific Nation

Turkey has clarified that the newly signed defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is not directed against Iran or any other state, framing the pact as a contribution to regional stability.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made the remarks a day after the leaders of the three nations signed the accord in Mecca. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formalized the agreement on Friday.

The pact, named the "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement," stipulates that an attack on one signatory would be treated as an attack on all three. It brings together Saudi Arabia's oil wealth, Pakistan's nuclear capability, and Turkey's large NATO-aligned military and expanding defense sector.

Fidan told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency that the signatories have not identified any common adversary. "We don't have anything written down — nothing we've signed — that defines a common threat," he said. "Any country that does not attack us is not a target for us."

He compared the mutual defense clause to NATO's Article 5, noting that assistance could range from intelligence sharing to logistics or military deployment, depending on the threat's scale. "These are multi-layered matters that vary according to the scale of the threat," Fidan said.

The minister also revealed that unnamed nations have expressed interest in joining, and he expects Egypt to participate "at the next stage," calling it a "natural partner."

Under the agreement, the three countries will hold regular meetings involving their foreign and defense ministers and military chiefs. A secretariat will be established in Saudi Arabia to coordinate the pact's operations.