Bangladesh should join the Mecca pact – if the bargain’s real
Bangladesh’s problem is not its geography. It is a geopolitical imagination too often confined by geography. So long as Dhaka views its foreign policy almost exclusively through the South Asian frame, India will remain the dominant power around which every Bangladeshi calculation revolves. Geography cannot be changed, but the diplomatic arena in which Bangladesh operates […] The post Bangladesh…
Bangladesh has expressed interest in joining the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, a pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan. The agreement, which aims to strengthen collective deterrence and expand defense cooperation, was signed on August 7 in Mecca. It states that an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all.
The pact has raised questions about potential enlargement, with Egypt reportedly studying the prospect of joining. There are conflicting reports about Iran's potential involvement, with an Iranian parliamentary media official saying Tehran had received an invitation, but the Foreign Ministry later denying this.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the agreement's expansion could determine whether it remains a trilateral security arrangement or develops into a broader alliance stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean through the Gulf and into the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
Brief written by urgent.news from Asia Times, Jerusalem Post — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
