Makkah Defence Pact moves towards institutionalization

ISLAMABAD: Senior officials level meeting of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement will be held on Monday in Riyadh and will focus on regional developments and ongoing cooperation among the member states, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

Foreign Office said Pakistan’s delegation to the meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee (SPDC) will include Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.

“The meeting will also be attended by the respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Defence, as well as Chiefs of General Staff of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Türkiye,” FO added.

It said that the member states will discuss “latest developments in the region and review ongoing cooperation under the framework of the Makkah Agreement”.

FO added that Pakistan’s participation signified its “resolve to continue contributing towards regional peace and stability”.

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement grew out of the longstanding defence relationships among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, but represents a new attempt to place those bilateral ties within a formal trilateral framework. The pact was signed in Makkah on August 7, 2026, by Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. It commits the three countries to strengthening collective security and deterrence and stipulates that an armed attack against any one of them would be regarded as an attack against all three.

The agreement also builds on a separate Pakistan-Saudi Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed in Riyadh in September 2025. That accord similarly provided that aggression against either Pakistan or Saudi Arabia would be considered aggression against both and sought to deepen their defence cooperation. The addition of Türkiye to the Makkah framework therefore brought together three countries that had already maintained extensive military and strategic contacts, including defence training, exercises and defence-industry cooperation.

The Makkah agreement subsequently moved from a political declaration towards an institutional structure. At the first meeting of its Strategic Political and Defence Committee in Istanbul on August 31, 2026, the three countries agreed to further institutionalise cooperation, including through a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan is to provide the first secretary general for a three-year term. They also agreed to expand defence-industry cooperation, joint technology development and production, and activities aimed at improving the cohesion of their armed forces.

Monday’s Riyadh meeting is therefore the next step in building the pact’s operational and political architecture. The participation of foreign and defence ministers alongside the three countries’ senior military leadership gives the framework a broad political-military character. Against the backdrop of continuing regional conflicts and security tensions, the meeting will provide the three members an opportunity to coordinate positions while defining how the collective-defence commitment and wider cooperation envisaged by the Makkah Agreement are to be implemented.