On August 7, 2026, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a pact committing themselves to collective defence against attacks on anyone of the three countries. For both Pakistan and Turkey, this was not the first time they had joined a multi-nation defence pact. Following the territorial expansion ambitions of what was then called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), its leader Josef Stalin had not kept secret his desire to extend his country's southern borders into Asia. The USSR had already extended its domain into Eastern Europe and north-central Asia. Moscow was looking for a route to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea. That meant bringing in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan under its control.

Further expansion into Europe was blocked by the United States by creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This approach worked and Washington followed it up by creating the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Pakistan was a member of both CENTO and SEATO, while Turkey was a member of CENTO.

The new agreement can reshape the strategic layout of the Middle East. While there was no official statement by Saudi Arabia or Turkey, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that the pact "stipulates that any attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against all three". President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey travelled to Makkah as did Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistan Prime Minister, to sign the deal. Sharif said in a post on social media that the pact's implementation could include joint........

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