Hakan Fidan says the Mecca pact is a collective-defence agreement and does not authorise Türkiye to conduct offensive operations from another country
Ankara is assessing possible support for Saudi Arabia, including air defence, electronic warfare, intelligence and technical capabilities
The pact was signed in August and its members have moved towards implementation, while Türkiye’s parliament has yet to ratify the agreement
Türkiye Won’t Send Troops For Attacks Under Mecca Defence Pact, Says Fidan
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Türkiye’s new defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is intended for collective defence and does not permit member states to use their forces to launch attacks from another country’s territory.
Summary
Türkiye has completed preparations to submit the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement to parliament for approval, Fidan said on Thursday, stressing that the pact would require members to support one another when attacked but would not authorise offensive military operations.
“Once a country that is party to the agreement is attacked, you stand by it for its defence. This is not an attack agreement,” Fidan said at a news conference in Ankara. He added that the agreement did not authorise Türkiye to deploy troops “to another country’s territory to carry out an attack”.
Defensive Pact
Fidan’s comments come as Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan move to put the agreement into operation following the attacks and security threats facing Saudi Arabia.
The three countries established the Mecca Joint Defence framework around a collective-defence principle under which an attack against one party is treated as an attack against all parties. Their foreign ministers discussed the agreement during a meeting on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
At that meeting, the ministers condemned attacks targeting Mecca as well as Saudi civilian and economic facilities. They also discussed plans for an urgent meeting of the three countries’ military chiefs to examine ways of supporting Saudi Arabia under the agreement.
Saudi Security
The agreement has moved closer to implementation following an emergency meeting of its Strategic Political and Defence Committee in Riyadh on Monday.
Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan said the committee had decided to move immediately towards implementing their collective-defence commitments. The countries agreed to take the necessary measures to provide military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in Saudi Arabia, subject to the parties’ national laws and approved arrangements.
The three countries also condemned what they described as attempted targeting of Mecca and Madinah and continuing attacks on Saudi cities and civilian and economic infrastructure.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Fidan attended Monday’s Riyadh meeting alongside Defence Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of General Staff Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, together with their Saudi and Pakistani counterparts.
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Parliament Approval
Fidan said Thursday that “the necessary work” to submit the agreement to the Turkish parliament had been completed. The accord therefore still requires approval through Türkiye’s domestic legal process before it can take effect in accordance with Turkish law.
The agreement’s practical implementation is being framed by its members as a collective response to threats against their security rather than as a mechanism for conducting offensive operations in third countries.
The distinction is significant as Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan build military coordination under the pact while seeking to define how their collective-defence commitments will operate in practice.
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