Turkiye Parliament Ratifies Mecca Defence Pact With Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

Photo: Saudi Press Agency via AP

Turkiye's parliament has ratified the Mecca defence pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, a deal that says an attack on one of the three countries is an attack on all of them. Lawmakers voted 279 to 119 in favour on Thursday, clearing the way for Turkish military help to Riyadh as Houthi attacks on the kingdom keep coming.

The pact was signed in Mecca on 7 August by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Turkiye sent it to its parliament for approval last month, and the final vote came after two days of debate in Ankara.

At the heart of the deal is a promise that will sound familiar to anyone who knows NATO. Article 1 says the three countries will use "all necessary means" to remove threats to each other's land and borders. Article 2 goes further: if one of them faces an armed attack, the others must come to its help at once, with every means they have. It is, in plain words, the same idea as NATO's Article 5, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.

The agreement has 16 articles in all. The rest of them cover joint training, shared intelligence, defence industry work and new technology, all meant to deter threats before they turn into attacks. The deal binds the three countries for ten years, after which any of them can walk away by giving three months' notice. Other countries can join too, if the three members agree, and Syria's government has already shown interest.

For Pakistan, this is a big step. The country now sits inside a formal three-way defence pact with Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, which means an attack on Pakistan would oblige the other two to come to its aid, and Pakistan would owe the same to them. It also ties Islamabad closer to Riyadh at a time when the Gulf is under fire, with Saudi forces intercepting a Houthi missile fired towards Medina only this week and five tankers hit in the Strait of Hormuz as fears of a wider war grow. Pakistan has been signing defence deals at a fast pace lately, and it ratified a defence pact with Kuwait only yesterday.

The timing matters. Riyadh says the Houthis have stepped up their attacks in recent months, including deadly strikes on King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia said it had shot down a drone near Medina, one of the two holiest cities in Islam. The Houthis deny they target the holy cities.

That does not mean Turkish troops are on their way to Saudi Arabia. Defence Minister Yasar Guler said in October that the help Turkiye offers would be about strengthening deterrence, adding, "We absolutely do not foresee entering into any conflict with the Houthis." Any deployment of Turkish soldiers would need more votes in parliament first, and experts say that is far from certain.

Some critics in Ankara asked a fair question: how can Turkiye, a NATO member, serve two defence pacts at once, and what happens if the two pull in different directions? Turkish officials have brushed the worry aside, saying there is no clash. The pact's backers say it is purely defensive, and the head of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Fuat Oktay, said the alliance "is entirely about defence, and not for attacking other countries."

The vote was not close in the end, but it was not unanimous either. Opposition parties warned the deal could drag Turkiye into regional wars and put Turkish soldiers in harm's way. The ruling AK Party, its ally the MHP and the main opposition CHP all backed it, and 398 lawmakers took part in the vote.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Turkiye's parliament ratifies Mecca defence agreement
• The Jerusalem Post: Turkey's parliament approves Mecca defense pact
• Arab News: Turkiye's parliament ratifies Makkah defense pact
• Daily Sabah: Turkish Parliament approves defense pact with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia

Next, the pact waits on the other two capitals to finish their own approval steps before it formally takes effect.

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