Erdoğan: Mecca defence agreement open to more countries

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is open to other “brotherly states,” signalling that Ankara sees the framework as a platform for broader regional security cooperation.

Erdoğan said the agreement is not directed against any specific country and is intended to strengthen collective deterrence and regional security, Asharq Al-Awsat reports. 

The Turkish president also described relations between Ankara and Riyadh as strategic, saying the two countries expect to deepen cooperation and take their ties to a “much higher level.”

Addressing the situation around the Strait of Hormuz, Erdoğan described the waterway as one of the key arteries of the global economy and expressed hope that tensions would ease soon. He said the strait should return to ensuring safe and uninterrupted international shipping.

The Turkish president separately called for an immediate halt to Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

On Syria, Erdoğan said Türkiye would continue supporting the country’s territorial integrity and would not allow entities to emerge on Syrian territory that could pose a security threat to Türkiye.

By Sabina Mammadli