TURKEY SAYS SAUDI-PAKISTAN DEFENSE PACT IS NOT AIMED AT IRAN OR OTHER COUNTRIES.(PHOTO).

 Turkey says Saudi-Pakistan defense pact is not aimed at Iran or other countries

  

Turkey's foreign minister said Saturday that a new defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey is not directed at Iran or any other specific country, describing the pact as a measure intended to strengthen regional security and stability.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement in Mecca on Friday. Under the agreement, an attack against any one of the three nations would be treated as an attack against all three.

The pact brings together Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey at a time of heightened tensions and uncertainty across the region. Saudi Arabia is a major oil producer, Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country, and Turkey has NATO's second-largest military and a growing domestic defense industry.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the agreement does not identify a specific country as a common enemy. He said the three nations would not consider another country a target unless it takes hostile action against one of them.

Fidan compared the agreement's mutual-defense provision to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on the alliance as a whole.

Under the agreement, a country facing an attack would first need to formally request assistance. The response from the other two nations could include intelligence sharing, logistical support or the deployment of military forces, depending on the severity of the threat.

Fidan said the level of assistance would be determined by the circumstances and scale of any potential attack.

He also said other countries have expressed interest in joining the agreement, although he did not identify them. Egypt, which Fidan described as a natural partner, could potentially join during a later phase of the initiative.

The agreement calls for the foreign and defense ministers of the three countries, as well as their military chiefs, to meet regularly through joint committees.

The nations also plan to establish a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia to coordinate the defense partnership and its future activities.