Turkish Committee Reviews Defense Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Grand National Assembly held a session to review a shared defense treaty, known as the Mecca Defense Agreement, between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Fuad Oktay, committee chair and Justice and Development Party member for Ankara province, presided over the session, which was attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Levent Gümrükçü. The treaty rests on three main pillars: shared defense, counter-terrorism, and development of domestic defense industries. In his opening remarks, Oktay noted that talks held yesterday in Tehran acquire particular significance in this context.

The treaty includes a provision on collective defense, but it operates neither automatically nor obligatorily; rather, it requires each party to follow its own constitutional procedures before activating this provision. This design sparked objection from Atakan Çakırözür, deputy chair of the opposition Good Party, who challenged the procedures being followed, stating that the treaty should have been referred to a subcommittee before discussion in the main Foreign Affairs Committee.

Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have completed their internal ratification procedures for the treaty. Gümrükçü noted that the agreement represents the first step in building a new regional security architecture, and that the agreement benefits not only the three nations but also contributes to stability throughout the entire region.