Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said on Sunday that the defence pact signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye remained “open to any country in the region” willing to uphold its fundamental principles.
He also clarified that the agreement was “purely defensive” in nature.
The indication that an expansion of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed in the Saudi city on Friday, was possible came a day after the Turkish foreign minister said Egypt could be joining the pact.
The pact aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empowers its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.
On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he believed Egypt could join the pact once several technical issues were resolved.
“Egypt is already our natural partner on all issues. I believe that at the next stage, Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members. There are a few technical issues. Once these are implemented, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it,” he told Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
Other countries had expressed interest in joining the agreement, but the founding members had debated how the expansion should be handled, he further stated.
Some countries that wanted to join asked not to be named, he said, adding that the preferred model was for Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to remain the three core founding countries, responsible for establishing the principles, standards and long-term structure of the alliance, while other countries could join with the approval of the core members.
“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow,” Fidan said.
Fidan also said the initiative was broader than the traditional definition of the Middle East because of Pakistan’s participation.
Pakistan’s geographical position meant the initiative went beyond the conventional definition of the Middle East and represented a broader regional perspective.
‘Same as Nato’s Article 5’
Fidan further elaborated on this, saying the pact was technically the same as Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence agreement.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic alliance specifies that an attack on one of its members is an attack on all of them. It obliges allies to take action they deem necessary to assist the country under attack, including potentially the use of military force.
While the Makkah defence pact stipulates the same, Fidan explained that its text contained general commitments whose practical implementation would depend on discussions and decisions by relevant bodies.
A country would need to make a request for assistance and would determine the type of support it needs, he said, adding that the requests could be of different kinds, ranging from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or, if necessary, military units, depending on the scale of the threat.
The signatories, he said, would decide through consultations what degree, form, and format of support they would ask for in the event of an attack, but that no country would be considered a threat as long as a member state is not attacked.
Fidan also said that the new alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support the three signatories’ security.
He further told Anadolu that discussions on the initiative began before the current war environment, when there was no US-Israel war on Iran and other regional countries had also been involved in the talks leading to the agreement.
Fidan said its signatories were countries that did not have expansionist policies. “They are countries concerned with their own borders, their own problems and their development, and, if possible, they want to contribute positively to their environment through good relations and good neighborliness.“
The three countries, he said, had different styles and capacities, but when brought together, they naturally formed a defence-oriented organisation rather than an offensive one.
“It is not an approach of going on the offensive and saying, ‘Let’s do this or that together.’ Therefore, unless it is attacked by a country, whether from inside or outside the region, this alliance cannot have any dispute with any country. But, of course, the power composition we have put forward will make a constructive contribution to regional stability,” he said.
He termed the pact the “most important step” toward bringing lasting stability to this region.
How will the alliance function?
According to Fidan, the pact would be operational under a political and military committee comprising foreign and defence ministers and chiefs of general staff, similar to Nato structures.
The committee would translate the vision set by the leaders into decisions and carry out related work, while a secretariat would be established to implement those decisions, he explained.
“At the first committee meeting, ministers would likely present proposals to the leaders on the establishment, structure and functioning of the secretariat, as well as its initial tasks,” he said, adding that the pact would cover a broad range of military issues, including interoperability, or the ability of countries with different military structures to operate together. Other areas would include joint training, mutual support, logistics, threat assessments, intelligence sharing and, most importantly, defence industry cooperation.
He said the committee would meet at certain intervals during the year and that a permanent secretariat would be established in Saudi Arabia. The structure, functioning and additional units of the secretariat would be determined in discussions among the members.
Fidan added that joint exercises and training would be necessary to establish the ability of the countries to operate together.
“Because after a while you will see that when you find yourselves in a common combat scenario, how your weapons systems and communications systems will communicate with one another and how they will be compatible are important issues. These are the things that will be done after the secretariat is established,” he said.
He said standards would need to be developed and that analyses and assessments would also be carried out.
‘Support in the Muslim world and the West’
Fidan said the defence agreement had received strong support from countries in the Muslim world, including those that were not members but were nevertheless very pleased with the agreement.
He said there were also supporters in the West who understood the substance of the initiative.
“Especially in the Islamic world, there are many who strongly support this issue. There are also supporters in the West, among those who understand the essence of the matter. The way for the Middle East to cease being a place that produces problems for humanity and the international community and instead become a place that creates added value with everything it possesses is through implementing constructive alliances of this kind,” Fidan said.
Fidan said the leadership of Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had created significant regional and global expectations and that officials now had the responsibility to fill those expectations professionally.
“Our responsibility, in the positions we hold, is to recognise that the political will put forward by the leadership of the three countries has created a very significant regional and global expectation. We need to fill that expectation very professionally, move forward step by step and make it work. We have begun doing this, and God willing, we will continue,” he said.
