Mecca Agreement in the Turkish Grand National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee

In his presentation to the commission, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Levent Gümrükçü emphasized that the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement constitutes, above all, an extension of the deep-rooted historical relations between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Reminding that the Agreement was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammed Shahbaz Şerif in Mecca on August 7, 2026, Gumrukcu stated that the internal approval processes of the Agreement were completed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and the necessary official notification was made in this regard.

"In addition to being an extension of the special friendly relations between the three countries, the Mecca Agreement is also a concrete product of the understanding of regional ownership, the need of which is increasingly felt in our region." Gümrükçü continued his words as follows;

As a matter of fact, today, when the problems in our region have become even more complicated, the three countries that are parties to the Agreement have taken responsibility themselves, instead of waiting for an external solution to these problems, and taken the first step of a regional security architecture based on the understanding of cooperation and collective defense, and laid out the legal basis for the institutional structure to be created in this direction.

Gümrükçü stated that this structure, which was established by the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, aims to contribute to the security of not only the three party countries but also the entire region, to create a permanent and predictable stability environment in the region by strengthening dialogue and cooperation on the basis of mutual trust, and to present a vision of peace, stability and prosperity under the responsibility and ownership of the regional countries themselves in the region, which has a great potential but has not been able to realize this potential due to various crises and conflicts that have continued for decades, Gümrükçü continued as follows;

The Mecca Agreement, which is entirely defense-oriented, does not target any country. It is open to the participation of all regional countries that aim to ensure regional peace and security and respect international law, especially the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, non-use of force except in self-defense, peaceful resolution of disputes and non-interference in internal affairs. In this form, the Agreement envisages integration rather than any polarization in the region, and contains an inclusive rather than a divisive vision.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Gümrükçü stated that with the Agreement, it is planned to strengthen collective deterrence, hold regular consultations on international security issues, increase the interoperability of the armed forces through mutual personnel exchange, joint training programs and exercises.

As a matter of fact, there is a clear provision in this direction in the Agreement. On the contrary, in line with the principle of indivisibility of security and within this framework, especially in the light of the mutual interaction in the field of security between the Euro-Atlantic geography and the Middle East region, the Mecca Alliance is envisaged to have a complementary nature to all multilateral platforms of which we are members regarding European security, especially NATO, with its contributions to the security and stability in the wider Middle East region. With these thoughts, we submit the Mecca Agreement for Common Defense to the approval of our Commission and our Supreme Assembly.

Source: TRT Haber Açık RSS (Gündem) (Open Press / Translated Full Text)