Turkey to hold joint military exercises with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

On August 7, 2026, Turkey signed a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement," as it is known, was signed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The agreement states that an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all three countries.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency that the pact is not aimed at any specific country, including Iran. Fidan emphasized that the agreement does not define a common threat against a particular state unless they take hostile action against the signatories. He described the mutual defense clause as being "technically the same" as NATO's Article 5, which states that an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all 32 members.

Fidan explained that if a member requests assistance, the other two countries can provide various forms of support, ranging from intelligence sharing to logistics, or even deploying military units depending on the threat.