Islamabad
\nDeputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said on Sunday that the defence pact signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye remained \u201copen to any country in the region\u201d willing to uphold its fundamental principles.
\nHe also clarified that the agreement was \u201cpurely defensive\u201d in nature.
\nThe indication that an expansion of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed in the Saudi city on Friday, was possible came a day after the Turkish foreign minister said Egypt could be joining the pact.
\nThe pact aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empowers its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.
\nDar further elaborated on the pact, which he referred to as the Makkah Accord, in a post on X.
\n\u201cThe Makkah Joint Defence Agreement [\u2026] reflects the depth of the brotherly relations between the leadership and peoples of the three countries.
\n\u201cThe Makkah Accord is the culmination of years of discussions and coordination, with a common desire to strengthen strategic cooperation in addressing multifarious peace and security challenges and advancing regional peace, stability and prosperity,\u201d he said.
\nHe clarified that the pact did not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between the signatory countries, or with other countries or organisations.
\nReiterating that any external armed attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all under the pact, he said it was consistent with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
\nMoreover, he said, the accord was \u201cpurely defensive\u201d in nature.
\n\u201cIt is not targeted against any country and its sole purpose is to further strengthen our ongoing efforts towards peace, stability and prosperity in the wider region.\u201d
\n\u201cThe Makkah Accord remains open to any country in the region willing to uphold its fundamental principles and resolve differences through mutual respect, cooperation and peaceful means,\u201d he said, adding that the pact was consistent with the fundamental pillars of Islamabad\u2019s foreign policy.
\n\u201cPakistan looks forward to continuing to work closely with all brotherly countries in the region towards lasting peace and stability. We remain committed to advancing the cause of peaceful resolution of all conflicts and building a more secure, stable and prosperous future for our peoples,\u201d he concluded.
\nLater in the day, Dar and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand exchanged views on the regional situation, including the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, the Foreign Office (FO) said.
\nDar informed Anand of the \u201cessence of the agreement and the joint resolve of the three countries to contribute to regional peace, stability and security\u201d.<\/p>\n
Egypt likely to join: Turkish FM
\nEarlier, on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said he believed Egypt could join the pact once several technical issues were resolved.
\n\u201cEgypt is already our natural partner on all issues. I believe that at the next stage, Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members. There are a few technical issues. Once these are implemented, there is no reason for Egypt not to be part of it,\u201d he told Turkiye\u2019s state-run Anadolu news agency.
\nOther countries had expressed interest in joining the agreement, but the founding members had debated how the expansion should be handled, he further stated.
\nSome countries that wanted to join asked not to be named, he said, adding that the preferred model was for Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to remain the three core founding countries, responsible for establishing the principles, standards and long-term structure of the alliance, while other countries could join with the approval of the core members.
\n\u201cUnder our president\u2019s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries. We should grow,\u201d Fidan said.
\nFidan also said the initiative was broader than the traditional definition of the Middle East because of Pakistan\u2019s participation.
\nPakistan\u2019s geographical position meant the initiative went beyond the conventional definition of the Middle East and represented a broader regional perspective.<\/p>\n
\u2018Same as Nato\u2019s Article 5\u2019
\nFidan further elaborated on this, saying the pact was technically the same as Nato\u2019s Article 5 mutual defence agreement.
\nArticle 5 of the North Atlantic alliance specifies that an attack on one \u200bof its members is an attack on all of them. It obliges allies to take action they deem necessary to assist the country under attack, including potentially the use of military force.
\nWhile the Makkah defence pact stipulates the same, Fidan explained that its text contained general commitments whose practical implementation would depend on discussions and decisions by relevant bodies.
\nA country would need to make a request for assistance and would determine the type of support it needs, he said, adding that the requests could be of different kinds, ranging from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or, if necessary, military units, depending on the scale of the threat.
\nThe signatories, he said, would decide through consultations what degree, form, and format of \u200bsupport they would ask for in the event of an attack, but that no country would be considered a \u200bthreat as long as a member state is not attacked.
\nFidan also said that the new alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support the three signatories\u2019 security.
\nHe further told Anadolu that discussions on the initiative began before the current war environment, when there was no US-Israel war on Iran and other regional countries had also been involved in the talks leading to the agreement.
\nFidan said its signatories were countries that did not have expansionist policies. \u201cThey are countries concerned with their own borders, their own problems and their development, and, if possible, they want to contribute positively to their environment through good relations and good neighbourliness.\u201c
\nThe three countries, he said, had different styles and capacities, but when brought together, they naturally formed a defence-oriented organisation rather than an offensive one.
\n\u201cIt is not an approach of going on the offensive and saying, \u2018Let\u2019s do this or that together.\u2019 Therefore, unless it is attacked by a country, whether from inside or outside the region, this alliance cannot have any dispute with any country. But, of course, the power composition we have put forward will make a constructive contribution to regional stability,\u201d he said.
\nHe termed the pact the \u201cmost important step\u201d toward bringing lasting stability to this region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said on Sunday that the defence pact signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye remained \u201copen to any country in the region\u201d willing to uphold its fundamental principles. He also clarified that the agreement was \u201cpurely defensive\u201d in nature. The indication that an expansion of the Makkah Joint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n