Mecca pact text: No enemy named, members locked in for 10 years

The wording is close to Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty.

Turkey has sent the Mecca Defence Pact, a mutual defence treaty it signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August, to its parliament for ratification. The 16-article text, which Middle East Eye said it obtained exclusively, commits the three countries to treat an armed attack from outside on any one of them as an attack on all. 

The wording is close to Article 5 of NATO‘s founding treaty.

The agreement does not name any country or region as a threat. It has no expiry date, and a member can pull out only after the pact has been in force for 10 years, and then only with three months’ written notice.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the pact in Makkah on August 7. 

‘Attack against all’

Under Article 1, the three agree to use “all necessary means” to remove any threat to a member’s sovereignty, territorial integrity or recognised borders.

Article 2 says that if a member faces armed attack or military aggression by another country or group of countries, the others will come to its help immediately. The scope of that help is to be decided after an objective assessment of what is needed, within each country’s resources, including military means.

The assistance is linked to the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. The text does not mention nuclear weapons.

Committee, secretariat

The pact sets up a Strategic Political and Defence Committee of the three countries’ foreign ministers, defence ministers and military chiefs. It will meet twice a year, with each country hosting in turn, while the leaders may meet once a year if needed.

A secretariat will be based in Saudi Arabia. It will be headed by a secretary-general appointed for three years by rotation and the first will be a Pakistani national.

The committee can decide, by consensus, the rules under which other countries may join. Pakistan’s foreign ministry has said the alliance is open to other states.

The members also commit to share intelligence through secure channels and to give one another logistical support in peace and war, including weapons, ammunition, fuel and spare parts. The pact provides for joint defence production, research, training, exercises and counter-terrorism cooperation.

Classified material exchanged under it cannot be shared with any country, company or person outside the group. The agreement does not affect earlier international commitments of the members, a clause that matters for Turkey, a NATO member.

It will come into force once the last of the three countries deposits its instrument of ratification with the secretariat. The pact was signed in Turkish, Arabic and English, and the English text will prevail in case of any dispute over meaning.

Alliance already invoked

Senior officials from the three countries met in Istanbul on August 31 to begin the committee’s work and formally named the grouping the Mecca Defence Alliance.

Earlier this month, the three agreed to activate “deterrence measures” under the pact and deploy forces to Saudi Arabia to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. It was the first time the alliance had been invoked. The ratification of the Mecca pact by Turkey could clear the way for military help to Riyadh against the Houthi strikes.

The Mecca pact builds on the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed in September 2025, which also treats an attack on one as an attack on both.

India watching

The pact has been closely tracked in India because it binds Pakistan to two major regional powers. After the signing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India was examining its implications and would take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests.

Saudi Arabia, in a separate statement at the time, said the pact was not a military alliance or a religious bloc and did not involve any nuclear ambitions.

Read the full text of the pact below:

Full text of Mecca defence pactDownload