Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has revealed that the defence agreement signed between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in Mecca is technically equivalent to NATO's Article 5 mutual defence clause but with a crucial distinction: it names no common enemy and targets no specific country.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Anadolu on Saturday, Fidan offered the most detailed explanation yet of the landmark trilateral pact, which he described as a necessary response to growing instability across the region.
"The Mecca defence agreement is technically the same as NATO's Article 5," Fidan said, referring to the alliance's collective defence provision that treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
"The pact does not specify any common threat," Fidan said, adding that the three nations entered the agreement out of a shared recognition that the region's deepening instability required a structured collective defence framework.
No target, no aggression
Fidan was emphatic that the alliance was defensive in nature and expansionist in neither ambition nor design.
"No country is our target as long as they don't attack member countries," he said, drawing a clear red line between collective self-defence and offensive military posturing.
He also stressed that the character of all three signatories made the alliance inherently non-threatening to the broader region.
"Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are not expansionist countries," Fidan said, signalling that the pact was designed to provide security and stability — not to project power or pursue territorial ambitions.
Why now?
The foreign minister said the agreement emerged from a genuine strategic necessity: the recognition that the Middle East and its surrounding region had entered a period of dangerous and sustained instability that required a coordinated response from major regional powers.
The trilateral grouping brings together three of the Muslim world's most significant military and economic powers: Türkiye, a NATO member with one of the alliance's largest armies; Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's dominant military spender; and Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state with one of Asia's largest standing armies.
President’s vision
Fidan also said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision is to expand the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement beyond 3 countries and bring all countries under the framework if necessary.
In a significant hint at the pact's future expansion, Fidan said he believed Egypt would join the agreement in its next phase.
The Mecca agreement is a key step toward lasting stability in the region, long marked by instability since the Ottoman withdrawal, Fidan said.
Russia-Ukraine
On the Russia-Ukraine war, Fidan said that when the war of attrition extends beyond the front lines, the conflict becomes a matter of national survival.
"When the war of attrition turns into attrition beyond the front lines, the issue becomes whether a nation will continue to exist. You use whatever means you have at your disposal," he said.
Cyprus
On the island of Cyprus, Fidan said Türkiye does not recognise the Greek Cypriot Administration as a state and stressed that the rights of Turkish Cypriots must be respected.
"We do not recognise the Greek Cypriot side as a state. If you do not recognise the rights of Turkish Cypriots, then I do not recognise your statehood," Fidan said.
"You are not the state established in 1960," he added.
Fidan also said peace and stability on the island of Cyprus are due to the presence of Turkish soldiers on the island.
He also called for continuing the international political isolation of Israel, saying this is something Israel fears the most.
Israel
On Israel, Fidan was unequivocal, calling for the continuation and deepening of Israel's growing international political isolation in the wake of its conduct in Gaza.
"Israel's international political isolation should continue without interruption," he said, signalling that Ankara had no intention of softening its stance toward Tel Aviv and would continue to press for international accountability.
