On August 7, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan signed the “Mecca Mutual Defense Agreement.” The agreement came as a surprise. But that surprise is hardly surprising: there had been no sign that such a pact was in the works. At least not for those “outside the state apparatus.” The process that led to the agreement remains as obscure as the ...
The recent Mecca Agreement between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has been presented as the beginning of a new regional security architecture. Yet behind the language of cooperation and deterrence lies a fundamental ambiguity: the alliance does not clearly identify the threat against which its members are supposed to act. For Alptekin Dursunoğlu, editor-in-chief of the Near East News agency, ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist The developments of the past several years, which began with October 7 and continued with the US-Iran war, have reached a point where they can no longer be interpreted merely as a conflict dynamic. Indeed, although these conflicts have their own internal balances, they have, in general, triggered the beginning of a fundamental transformation. While ...
To answer the question posed in the title of this article, it is useful to outline certain contextual facts regarding the conjunctural background of the Mecca Agreement, signed between Türkiye, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, which is stated to be the result of approximately 2.5 years of preparation. To summarize: 1. The global weakening of American hegemony has two fundamental consequences ...
Egypt has not been absent from the regional coordination landscape, nor does it need to prove its presence by joining new military alliances or blocs. Cairo remains committed to coordination with its partners, foremost among them Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan, but on its own terms and in line with its national interests and established principles. At the heart of ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The first test of the Mecca Defense Agreement will be in Yemen. The international press is now asking the same question: What will Türkiye do as the Houthis continue to strike Saudi Arabia? And on the morning of 9 August, the first report of an attack hit the wires. Houthi forces announced that they had struck ...
A few days ago, at Al-Safa Palace in Mecca, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed a document titled the “Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.” Its core clause stipulates that an armed attack on any of the three signatory states is deemed an attack on them all—a formulation that, according ...