Trump Backs Regional Defence Pact Between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan
US President Donald Trump has expressed his support for the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The agreement aims to deepen defence cooperation among the three countries and treat an attack on one as an attack on all.
The pact, signed on August 7, will group senior ministers from the three countries, hold joint exercises, and deepen defence industry cooperation. This move comes in response to a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters.
Saudi Arabia is building regional defensive alliances in an effort to keep its enemies at bay and respond more robustly to attacks by Iran and its network of regional allies. However, nascent attempts to construct a multinational maritime coalition in the Red Sea have so far failed to ward off attacks, according to analysts and diplomats.
Riyadh faces a dilemma: how to deter attacks and protect its economic vision without becoming entangled in a broader conflict in the region sparked by the war between the US and Iran.