Pakistan and Turkey agreed to rapidly deploy military forces to Saudi Arabia on Monday after activating the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, marking the first time the mutual defense pact has been invoked since it was signed in August.
The decision was announced following an emergency meeting of the Strategic-Political and Defense Committee of the Makkah Alliance for Defense in Riyadh on October 5. Senior defense and military officials from all three countries attended, including Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, and Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
According to a joint statement from Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the committee decided to "move immediately to the practical implementation" of collective defense commitments and take necessary measures to provide agreed military forces and capabilities for rapid deployment in Saudi Arabia. The deployment will be carried out in accordance with approved arrangements and the national laws of all three countries.
The activation comes amid continuing attacks and security threats facing Saudi Arabia, including those linked to Iran-backed Houthi forces. In recent weeks, Houthi forces have seized control of Yemen's Red Sea coast, including the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait, and targeted critical energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The Houthis also claimed to have launched attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia's Aramco-associated Petro Rabigh refinery.
The three countries condemned what they described as attempts to target Mecca and Medina, along with continuing attacks on Saudi cities and civilian and economic facilities. The joint statement did not explicitly name the Houthis as the rationale for activating the pact, though it cited recent attacks on the holy cities.
Under the trilateral, NATO-style agreement, "any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all." The members of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement boast a combined military strength of nearly 1.4 million active troops, along with 3,400 aircraft, 6,000 tanks, and more than 340 naval assets. Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority nation in the world, and Turkey has NATO's second-largest armed forces.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that Islamabad and Ankara were already aiding Riyadh in a "supporting role," including in the form of reconnaissance. However, Pakistan said it will not release the details of its deployment. The Turkish parliament has yet to ratify the mutual defense pact.
The committee also appointed Pakistan's retired Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood as the first Secretary-General of the Makkah Alliance for Defense for a three-year term. In response to the pact's activation, Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen launched a counteroffensive on Monday in an effort to retake coastal territory, with Yemeni officials reporting that forces successfully recaptured several key towns near Bab el-Mandeb.
