The Turkish parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday approved a bill to ratify the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The pact was signed in Makkah on August 7 by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Deputy Foreign Minister Levent Gumrukcu answered lawmakers' questions at the session. He said Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had already completed their domestic ratification and submitted the official notifications, leaving Turkey's approval outstanding.
Gumrukcu described the agreement as "a concrete product of the regional ownership increasingly needed in our region", saying the three countries wanted to take responsibility for regional challenges rather than wait for solutions from outside.
He stressed that the pact was purely defensive and targeted no country. It is open, he said, to any regional state that respects international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and "envisions integration rather than bloc-building".
The agreement provides for stronger collective deterrence, regular consultations on security issues, personnel exchanges, joint training and military exercises to improve interoperability, and closer defence-industry cooperation. With committee approval secured, the bill now goes to the full Turkish parliament.