Pak., Saudi Arabia, Turkiye ink defence deal

8 AUGUST 2026

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye signed a joint defence agreement Mecca Al-Mukarramah Summit for Joint Defence committing “collective defence” and “collective deterrence”.
The three countries, an oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom, a South Asian nuclear power and a NATO member, said the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was aimed at strengthening “collective deterrence” and declared that an armed attack against any one of them would be treated as an attack against them all.
This comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is under attack from Yemen’s Houthis and West Asia remains engulfed in the ongoing war against Iran.
In July 2026, after an attack on an airport in Yemen, the country’s Iran-aligned Houthis (Ansar Allah) launched attacks on Saudi oil facilities and imposed a maritime blockade on the kingdom’s Red Sea ports.
In September 2025, weeks after Israel carried out an attack on Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, committing themselves to treat any act of aggression against one as an act against both.
Since then, Pakistan has clashed several times with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, while Saudi Arabia has come under repeated attacks from Iran and the Houthis. But neither country has intervened militarily on behalf of the other, raising questions about the practical scope of such mutual defence commitments.