The Foreign Office on Sunday announced the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee established under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement will be held in Istanbul on Monday (today).
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar would represent Pakistan alongside Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, and Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir.
“The meeting will also be attended by the respective ministers of Foreign Affairs, ministers of Defense, as well as Chiefs of General Staff of the Republic of Turkiye, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” it added.
In a separate statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also confirmed that the field marshal had reached Turkiye.
Islamabad, Ankara, and Riyadh signed the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement on Aug. 7 in a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The agreement aims to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all.
There has been a sustained push by regional states to strengthen security ties following the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Iran. Since the war began on Feb. 28, Tehran had targeted multiple Gulf states housing U.S. bases and warned states against allowing their territory or facilities to be used for Washington’s strikes on Iran.
All three states have said the agreement is open to the participation of other states, with both Egypt and Bangladesh expressing interest in signing on.