Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have completed ratification of a defense agreement with Türkiye, whose parliamentary review is underway as all three governments discuss how the pact will operate.
Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said at a news conference Friday that Pakistan had completed ratification. Anadolu Ajansı reported that Khan also said Saudi Arabia had finished its own approval process.
Khan said the three governments continue to discuss ratification and the agreement’s operation through the Strategic Political and Defense Committee. The Foreign Office transcript calls the committee’s Oct. 5 gathering a recent meeting. Khan said the rules for approving international agreements vary under each country’s constitution and laws.
The pact, formally known as the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, was signed in Mecca on Aug. 7. Signatories were Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and prime minister.
Anadolu reported that the pact is intended to bolster security among the three countries through cooperation and a shared defense arrangement. Khan said Pakistan views the agreement as defensive and in line with the U.N. Charter.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has said the pact’s mutual-defense provision treats an armed attack on one signatory as an attack on all three. A notice from Türkiye’s Grand National Assembly dated Oct. 20 records the pact’s submission for parliamentary review, a step in Ankara’s approval process.
