Erdogan says Egypt could join Turkiye-Saudi-Pakistan defence pact
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Egypt could potentially join a newly signed defence agreement between Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He described Cairo's accession as possible and said the pact was open to further members. The comments came in an exclusive interview that is due to air on Sunday evening on Al Jazeera Arabic.
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The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed in the holy city last Friday by Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to Erdogan, the deal commits the signatories to taking unified steps if any one of them comes under external attack. The agreement also says an armed attack against one signatory would be treated as an attack against all three.
The pact has been presented as a collective-deterrence arrangement, and analysts have compared its language with NATO's Article 5. Officials in Islamabad, however, have cautioned against reading it as a NATO equivalent or as being directed at any single country. That distinction matters because the agreement appears designed both to signal solidarity and to avoid framing the arrangement as an explicit military bloc against a named adversary.
Erdogan said the agreement had sent an important message to the world. His remarks suggest the pact may be intended as a broader regional framework rather than a closed three-country arrangement. If Egypt were to join, it would add another major Arab military power to a deal already linking Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
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The interview also placed the pact in a wider regional context, with Erdogan speaking about tensions over the Strait of Hormuz and the wars in Syria, Gaza and Lebanon. He said reopening the strait was a priority for Ankara and argued that its continued closure served no one's interests. He also said Turkiye would not leave neighbouring states to face regional turmoil alone, naming Syria, Gaza and Lebanon.
What remains unclear is whether Egypt has shown any formal interest in joining the agreement or whether the pact's current members are actively seeking expansion. It is also not clear how the arrangement would operate in practice, including what form any unified response would take in the event of an attack. The next developments to watch are any reaction from Cairo, further detail from the signatories, and whether the pact is followed by additional diplomatic or military coordination.
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