Draft Defence Pact Ready Between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye: Defence Production Minister

Islamabad: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have prepared a draft of a trilateral defence agreement after nearly a year of negotiations, a move that could signal the formation of a stronger regional alignment amid rising tensions over the past two years, Pakistan’s Minister for Defence Production, Raza Hayat Hiraj, has said.
Speaking to a foreign news agency, Hiraj said the proposed trilateral agreement is separate from the bilateral defence pact signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia last year. He added that while the draft has been finalised, formal approval from all three countries is still required before it can be signed.
“The draft agreement is with Pakistan, it is with Saudi Arabia, and the same draft is also with Türkiye. All three countries are in consultation, and discussions on this have been ongoing for the past 10 months,” the minister said.
He emphasised that consensus at the highest level remains necessary before the agreement can be formally concluded.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking at a press conference in Istanbul in response to a question on the trilateral talks, confirmed that discussions had taken place but said no agreement had yet been signed.
Fidan stressed the need for broader regional cooperation and mutual trust to overcome mistrust that leads to divisions, external domination, terrorism-driven conflicts and instability in the region.
“Our proposal is that all regional countries should come together to form a cooperative platform on security issues. Regional problems can be resolved if countries trust one another,” he said.
He added that meetings and negotiations are continuing, but no formal agreement has been signed so far, noting that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s vision centres on a collective platform aimed at wide-ranging cooperation and regional stability.
Earlier, a Bloomberg report, citing informed sources, said Türkiye is seeking to form a defence alliance with Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a move that could pave the way for a new security bloc and potentially alter the balance of power in the Middle East and beyond.
According to the report, the proposed trilateral framework appears to be built on the defence agreement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in September 2025, under which external aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on the other. The clause is seen as similar to NATO’s Article 5. Within NATO, Türkiye has the second-largest military after the United States.