Saudi Arabia — Türkiye and the Gulf

Summary

The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister and the Turkish President signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement at Al-Safa Palace on 7 August 2026, alongside the Pakistani Prime Minister. The joint statement of the summit, published by the Saudi Press Agency and by the Pakistani foreign ministry, says the agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all, and provides for developing all aspects of defence cooperation. On 31 August the two states' foreign ministers, defence ministers and chiefs of general staff met in Istanbul with Pakistan's as the agreement's Strategic Political and Defence Committee; their joint statement, issued by the Turkish foreign ministry, records an intention to institutionalise cooperation further, a Secretariat to be headquartered in Saudi Arabia under a Secretary General with Pakistan providing the first holder for three years, and commitments on defence-industry cooperation, joint technology development and production, interoperability and cohesion between the three armed forces. Turkish officials have stated publicly that the pact is not directed at any specific party and is open to other states, and that the degree, form and format of any response would be settled by consultation. On 24 September the three foreign ministers, meeting in New York, agreed to convene their chiefs of staff to explore ways to assist Saudi Arabia under the agreement, which Türkiye described as technical negotiations; on 25 September the chiefs met in Riyadh and pledged intelligence cooperation, military coordination and the integration of defence capabilities. It was the first consultation held under the agreement; no invocation, contribution or command arrangement was announced. On 5 October the agreement's committee, meeting in emergency session in Riyadh, decided to move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective-defence commitments and to provide the agreed forces and capabilities for rapid deployment in the kingdom, under approved arrangements that are not published; it named no force, size, mission or command, and cited no invocation. On 8 October Foreign Minister Fidan said the work to send the agreement's text to the Turkish parliament for ratification had been completed, and two Turkish officials told Reuters that Ankara was sending mainly defensive and technical support to Saudi Arabia, without saying it was provided under the agreement. Foreign Minister Fidan has said Türkiye would have no problem meeting Saudi military needs in certain technical areas. On 20 October three parliamentary sources told Reuters the government had submitted the agreement to parliament for ratification. Reuters, which saw the sixteen-article text submitted, reported an assistance clause that leaves each party to decide the scope and nature of its support, a defence committee of foreign and defence ministers, accession only with all three founders' consent and a ten-year term; that rests on the one agency's account. The agreement text has not been released.

Why it matters

The most significant new security arrangement a Gulf state entered during the war was made outside the Gulf Cooperation Council, with a state that is not a member of it, in the same month the Council's own leaders called for faster military integration. Whether such arrangements supplement the Council or displace it is a question this module tracks rather than answers. What the September 2026 attacks on Saudi territory added is a second question the record now carries: whether the institutions agreed in Istanbul acquire a procedure that produces an identifiable trilateral response, or remain a forum beside the bilateral and maritime arrangements that are doing the work.

Agreements

• Makkah Joint Defence Agreement · signed 2026-08-07

  Signed at the Makkah Al-Mukarramah summit for joint defence by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan. The collective-defence undertaking recorded here is the parties' own published statement of it; the agreement text has not been released and no operative term is recorded.

Related events

• Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan sign the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement 7 Aug 2026

  Diplomatic · Military

• The Makkah Agreement's political and defence committee meets for the first time 31 Aug 2026

  Diplomatic · Military

• The heaviest Houthi attack wave against Saudi territory of this round 8 Sep 2026, continuing to 3 Oct

  Military · Energy

• The Makkah Agreement's chiefs of staff meet in Riyadh on support to Saudi Arabia 23 – 25 Sep 2026

  Military · Diplomatic

• The Makkah Agreement's committee decides to implement its collective-defence commitments in Saudi Arabia 5 Oct 2026

  Military · Diplomatic

What remains unknown

• The agreement text has not been published. The collective-defence undertaking is official — it appears in the three governments' joint summit statement — but what it requires of a signatory, on what threshold and by what decision procedure, is not established by any source read.
• The Istanbul joint statement names a Secretariat and a Secretary General but no consultation procedure, threshold, command arrangement or force allocation. No such machinery has been published since.
• No formal invocation of the agreement by any signatory has been publicly reported as of 26 September 2026. The first trilateral consultation held under it — the chiefs of staff in Riyadh on 25 September — named areas of cooperation and no contribution, threshold or procedure; the Associated Press reported on 16 September that Turkish officials had received no Saudi request under the agreement.
• The agreement is trilateral. Its Türkiye–Pakistan limb has no Gulf party and is outside this module's boundary; it is not authored, and the module makes no claim about it.
• Reuters reported on 20 October, from the text submitted to the Turkish parliament, a ten-year term after which a party may withdraw. The text itself has not been read, so the duration and withdrawal terms are one agency's account of it, not a verified provision.
• Submission to the Turkish parliament is not ratification. No signatory has been reported to have completed domestic ratification, and the Al Jazeera account of 20 October says a Turkish deployment would need separate legislative steps in any case.