Makkah defence pact is purely defensive, DG ISPR tells Al Arabiya

Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye would jointly decide any response under the August agreement, while stressing collective deterrence and no regional aspirations.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military spokesperson said on Wednesday that the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement binding Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye is purely defensive, aimed at collective deterrence and free of regional aspirations, and that any operational response if a partner were attacked would be decided jointly by the three governments.

Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), made the remarks in a special interview with Al Arabiya English on 16 September 2026, according to English-language reports by The News International and The Express Tribune.

The trilateral pact was signed in Makkah on 7 August 2026 by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Pakistan’s Foreign Office and Geo News reported at the time that the agreement treats an armed attack on any one signatory as an attack on all three and provides for broader defence cooperation and collective deterrence.

Asked how Pakistan would respond if a partner came under attack, Lt Gen Chaudhry said details of how defensive commitments would be operationalised remain classified and are not disclosed publicly in any military discourse, The News reported. “It is for the three countries to decide, and it is for them to know and for them to actualise it,” he said, according to that outlet.

Describing the accord’s character, he told Al Arabiya English: “It is defensive, as the word also implies. There’s nothing aggressive. There are no regional aspirations. It is a collective deterrence,” The News quoted him as saying. The Express Tribune similarly reported his characterisation that the pact has “no offensive, no interference, no aggressive element.”

Lt Gen Chaudhry also framed the arrangement as complementary rather than competitive with the three countries’ other partnerships. “So this mutual defence agreement is complementary in nature. It is not competing with any other relationship of all these countries with each other,” he said, according to The News. Tribune coverage of the same interview said he linked that complementarity to the signatories’ independent ties with other alliances and blocs, and, when asked about Pakistan’s relationship with China, described the Makkah pact as complementary rather than a rival to that longstanding partnership.

He rejected labelling the pact a “Muslim alliance,” calling it instead a regional stability arrangement open to willing partners who share a vision of non-aggression, non-interference and collective deterrence, Tribune reported. “It’s not a club that has been made for Muslim countries only,” he said, according to that newspaper, adding that expansion would be a matter for the three countries’ leadership.

Beyond the Makkah framework, The News reported that Lt Gen Chaudhry also discussed Pakistan–India military dynamics, saying a military conflict between two nuclear-armed neighbours was “out of the question” and that Pakistan believes in “peace on equal terms,” while warning that Islamabad would safeguard its security if faced with aggression. Separate English summaries of the Al Arabiya interview, including Daily Qudrat English, attributed remarks in which he contrasted India’s military spending with what he described as Pakistan’s defensive posture and reiterated that Afghan territory should not be used for terrorism against Pakistan — points that track the broader interview but remain secondary to his comments on the trilateral defence pact.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office has previously described the Makkah agreement as purely defensive and not directed against any country, language that aligns with the ISPR chief’s public characterisation on Wednesday.

*Sources: Al Arabiya English interview (16 Sept 2026), as reported by The News International, The Express Tribune, Geo News (signing, 7 Aug 2026); Daily Qudrat English (secondary interview points).*