Turkey\u2019s Defence Ministry has said that the \u201cMecca agreement for joint defence\u201d between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is defensive in nature and is neither defined as an alternative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it identify any country as a common enemy or rival.<\/p>\n
The ministry said at its weekly news briefing in Ankara on Thursday that the aim of the agreement is to help regional security and stability, expand military cooperation among the three countries, and strengthen the capacity for joint action in response to possible crises.<\/p>\n
According to the Turkish Defence Ministry, the agreement sets out a framework for priority cooperation and the common objectives of the three countries. Based on the ministry\u2019s explanation, the establishment of strategic political and military mechanisms involving defence ministers, foreign ministers and chiefs of staff or commanders of the armed forces is one of the main pillars of the agreement.<\/p>\n
The ministry also said the gradual expansion of military cooperation, defence industry cooperation including the supply of products and systems, joint development and production, technological cooperation, and the provision of maintenance services and sustainable logistical support are also envisaged under the framework.<\/p>\n
According to the ministry, cooperation in electronic warfare and strengthening capabilities supported by artificial intelligence are also part of the agreement. The ministry added that the \u201cMecca agreement\u201d is considered a complementary mechanism for the international security structure.<\/p>\n
The Turkish Defence Ministry also said that as this mechanism expands, and if the necessary understandings are reached, the possibility of considering the accession of other countries will also exist. According to the ministry, the ultimate goal is to create an institutional mechanism that is active in peacetime, prepared for possible crises and able to provide tangible military support when needed.<\/p>\n
The text of the agreement states that any armed attack on one of the three countries will be considered an attack on all of them. The agreement was signed on 7 August in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif.<\/p>\n
NATO is a US-led military alliance of which Turkey is a member. Mecca is also one of Saudi Arabia\u2019s most important cities, where the agreement was signed at the Royal Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey says the Mecca joint defence pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is defensive and not an alternative to NATO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}