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Theme: Defense

Wire

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye decided on Monday, October 5, to move immediately to implement their collective defence commitments and ensure the rapid deployment of the agreed forces to Saudi territory, according to Reuters in a text republished by The Hindu, a move Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry describes as providing the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensuring their rapid deployment to the kingdom, according to Al Jazeera. Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman said the activation responds to the attacks and all those responsible for them, according to Al Jazeera.

Turkey said the Strategic Political and Defense Committee of the Mecca defence pact, which includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, will meet in Riyadh on Monday, according to Middle East Eye. The meeting will address recent developments in the region and the stage reached in the Alliance's institutionalisation efforts, the Turkish ministry statement said. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will travel to Riyadh with the defence minister and the chief of staff for the committee meeting of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, an alliance founded in August with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, according to the Anadolu Agency.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it will intensify strikes on military and defense industry facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions. The decision was presented as a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's statement that Ukraine will double down on attacks on Russian refineries, according to Reuters, in an article republished by the Hindustan Times.

Ukraine’s 2027 military spending is set at $108.3 billion, compared with $71.7 billion in its own revenues, and the draft leaves the country needing an additional $25.4 billion from Western sponsors to cover military spending alone, according to the Russian state agency TASS.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Islamabad will use “whatever means are available” to defend Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, according to Arab News. Speaking in Rome, he declined to say whether Pakistani forces had already taken part in airstrikes, according to Arab News. The pledge is presented as an obligation under the new mutual defence pact, under which Islamabad would make “whatever means” available to Riyadh if it faces a Houthi threat, according to Al Jazeera.

30 Sep · 04:22

The chiefs of the defence forces and general staffs of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye met in Riyadh on Friday, September 25, according to a statement by the army, and discussed expanding intelligence sharing, military coordination and capability integration within the Mecca defence pact. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said at the United Nations (UN) that further attacks on the holy city of Mecca would be a “red line” for Islamabad. The air defence of the Saudi-led coalition intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait, according to the coalition’s official spokesperson, Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki.

26 Sep · 03:21

Turkey’s and Pakistan’s top military chiefs are travelling to Riyadh after Saudi Arabia called an urgent meeting on implementing their mutual defence pact, Al Jazeera reports. Turkey’s Defence Ministry confirmed that the chief of general staff, General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, will travel to Saudi Arabia, according to Al Jazeera. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on August 7, 2026, treats an armed attack on any of the three countries as an attack on all three — Al Jazeera frames the move as Ankara and Islamabad edging closer to Saudi Arabia’s war against the Houthis in Yemen, Al Jazeera reports.

25 Sep · 08:23

Turkey’s parliament speaker said he expects the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia defence pact, extended to Turkey in August and renamed the Mecca joint defence agreement, to be submitted for parliamentary approval next month, according to Middle East Eye. The pact states that an armed attack on any one of the three countries is treated as an attack on all, but parliamentary ratification remains pending, The Guardian reports.

25 Sep · 07:52