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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday he believed Egypt could join a defence pact signed between Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia 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.

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed in the Saudi city on Friday, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empowers the three states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.

Fidan further elaborated on this, saying the pact was technically the same as Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence agreement.