The Turkish parliament adopted the first article of a bill to ratify the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement on Thursday. The pact involves Pakistan, Turkiye, and Saudi Arabia. According to the agreement's first article, the participating parties shall use "all necessary means" to eliminate threats to one another's territorial integrity, sovereignty or internationally recognised borders.
Lawmakers began debating the individual articles of the bill on Wednesday after completing discussions on the bill as a whole at the General Assembly. Following the adoption of the first article, Turkiye Deputy Parliament Speaker Celal Adan suspended the session and subsequently adjourned it until Thursday afternoon.
Turkiye submitted the pact to its parliament for ratification on October 20. Turkiye's constitution requires separate permission from parliament to deploy troops abroad regardless of any international agreement.
The three nations signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 during a trilateral summit in Makkah. The agreement pledges to strengthen collective security, deepen defence cooperation and promote peace and stability in the region and beyond. It establishes a framework for collective deterrence and stipulates that an armed attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all three, while providing for wider cooperation across defence.
Turkiye and Pakistan had sought closer regional security cooperation, while Saudi Arabia had faced growing security concerns as conflicts spread across the region, threatening its territory, energy infrastructure and ambitious economic development plans.
The countries already maintained extensive military links. Pakistan had provided training and technical assistance to Saudi forces for decades, while Islamabad and Ankara had maintained close defence ties through military training, naval cooperation and defence equipment. In 2023, Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase Turkish drones in what Ankara described as its largest defence export contract.
