On August 7, 2026, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan gathered in the holy city of Mecca to sign the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formalized a pact under which an armed attack on any one of the three states is regarded as an attack on all. The agreement aims to strengthen collective deterrence against aggression and to deepen defense cooperation across military, industrial, and strategic domains.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.This trilateral arrangement builds on an earlier bilateral mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed in September 2025. It brings together complementary strengths: Saudi Arabia’s financial resources and central role as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, Turkey’s large NATO-standard military and advanced defense industry, and Pakistan’s experienced armed forces and status as the only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority state. Officials from the three countries have stressed that the pact is purely defensive, not directed at any specific third party, and remains open to other regional states that share its principles of peaceful resolution of disputes.