Turkey is convening the first ministerial defense meeting of the Mecca Pact in Istanbul today, bringing together the for...

Turkey is convening the first ministerial defense meeting of the Mecca Pact in Istanbul today, bringing together the foreign and defense ministers and military chiefs of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan for the alliance's inaugural strategy session. The Mecca Agreement was signed on August 7 in Saudi Arabia by Turkish President Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The pact links NATO's second-largest military with the Gulf's dominant power and the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world. Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Defense Minister Yasar Guler will chair the session alongside the Turkish military's chief of staff, General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu. Pakistan is sending Vice PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Muhammad Asif, and Army Chief Asim Munir. Saudi Arabia is sending Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud along with its defense minister and joint chiefs. The meeting will formally establish a "Strategic Policy and Defense Committee" to set the alliance's direction on joint operations, military interoperability, and defense industry cooperation. Ankara has also reiterated a core clause of the agreement: an attack on any one member state will be treated as an attack on all three. The three-way bloc represents a significant geopolitical realignment, grouping together a NATO member, a Gulf heavyweight, and a nuclear power under a single mutual-defense framework for the first time. #Turkey #MeccaPact #Geopolitics