Türkiye’s parliament has ratified the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a trilateral pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that treats an armed attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all of them.
Lawmakers in the Grand National Assembly approved the ratification bill on Thursday by 279 votes to 119, with 398 of the chamber’s 592 members taking part in the vote after two days of debate.
The 16-article agreement was signed in Mecca on 7 August by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Beyond the collective-defence clause, it commits the three countries to cooperate on deterrence, intelligence sharing, joint military exercises and training, counterterrorism and closer defence industry ties, including technology transfers and joint production.
Ratification comes as Saudi Arabia continues to face attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and it builds on a bilateral strategic mutual defence agreement that Riyadh and Islamabad signed in September 2025. The pact runs for an initial 10 years, and other countries may join if all three founding members agree.
Opposition lawmakers warned during the debate that the agreement could draw Türkiye into conflicts driven by its allies’ interests. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its Nationalist Movement Party ally backed the measure, along with the main opposition Republican People’s Party, while the New Party, the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and the Good Party voted against it.
Ratification does not by itself authorise Turkish troops to be deployed abroad: any deployment would require a separate parliamentary mandate under Article 92 of the Turkish constitution, and Turkish officials have stressed that the pact is defensive. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have already completed their own ratification procedures. The agreement will enter into force once President Erdoğan has ratified it, the law is published in the Official Gazette, and the final ratification documents are deposited with the pact’s secretariat in Saudi Arabia.
Sources: Al Jazeera (https://234radio.com/turkiyes-parliament-ratifies-mecca-defence-agreement/); Reuters, Anadolu Agency and Associated Press, as reported at https://zarknews.com/turkey-parliament-approves-mecca-defense-pact/ and https://anewz.tv/region/central-asia/26397/turkiye-ratifies-saudi-arabia-pakistan-defence-pact/news
