'Put Differences Aside': Pakistan Asks Muslim Nations To Join 'Islamic NATO'

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has called for Islamic nations to set aside their differences and join Islamabad's defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to form a military alliance along the lines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Talking to Geo News, Asif said the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement shouldn't be an 'exclusive club' and urged Islamic nations to put their difference aside and join the pact.

"The doors really cannot be closed to other countries. This should not be an exclusive club -- this is my personal opinion. It should expand," Asif said.

"I think that, along the lines of NATO, Muslim countries should put their own differences aside--the transactional issues or bilateral disputes they have with one another -- and stand together on this one platform," he added.

The Pact

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement" on Friday, in what analysts belive could weave a new security architecture in the region.

Alarmed at a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf oil exporters, the three countries seek to deepen security cooperation amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.

The new defence pact builds on a previous agreement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia a year ago, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claiming it is technically the same as NATO's Article 5 mutual defence agreement.

The central feature of the pact stipulates that an attack on any one of the three states would be treated as an attack on all of them. However, all details of the deal are yet to be fleshed out.

Turkey, which has NATO's second-largest army, has said that the allies would decide through consultations what degree, form, and format of support they would ask for in the event of an attack, but that no country would be considered a threat as long as a member state is not attacked.

The three countries bring significant but differing capabilities to the arrangement. Pakistan has extensive military experience and is the Muslim world's only nuclear-armed country. Saudi Arabia brings substantial economic resources and regional influence. And NATO member Turkey has a large military and an increasingly sophisticated domestic defense industry.

More Nations Can Join The Pact

Apart from Asif, other senior regional officials have also suggested that the deal could eventually expand to include other countries to strengthen its role as a collective security force. According to Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan, the country's President Erdogan wanted to see the alliance expand, and that Egypt was a potential candidate to join, among others.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Fidan said the new alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support the three allies' security.

'Not A Threat'

Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar has, meanwhile, said the new defense agreement was not directed against any country and remained open to other nations in the region. Dar said the agreement was "purely defensive in nature" and that other countries could join if they were willing to uphold its principles and resolve differences through peaceful means, adding the deal reflected a shared desire to strengthen strategic security cooperation.

Dar said in his post on X that Pakistan would continue working with countries across the region toward lasting peace and stability.

"The Makkah Accord does not abrogate or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral agreements between these countries, or with other countries or organizations," he wrote.