土耳其、沙特、巴基斯坦签署《麦加联合防务协议》

Last Friday, the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan signed a landmark defense pact called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. Dubbed by Sam as an Islamic NATO, the trilateral agreement stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all, echoing NATO's article 5 mutual defense clause. With the US Iran war still unresolved, renewed escalation in Yemen and the Red Sea, and persistent tension between Israel and its neighbors, the Mecca joint defense agreement is set against the backdrop of a turbulent Middle East.

So, in this video, we're going to explain the new mutual defense pact, including what has inspired it and what its potential consequences might be. [music] We believe that quietly changing the facts or quickly deleting a video without explanation is a clear breach of your trust. So when we make mistakes, we have an entire policy designed around openly correcting them. Find out more about what we believe in our official manifesto.

It's linked in the description of every one of our videos. The Mutual Defense Pact has actually been in the pipeline for some time now. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fedan said the efforts have been underway for 2 years and 8 months. Over the course of this period, there's been much talk about the increased cooperation between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and also Egypt, although Egypt didn't sign up the pact last week.

And last September, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia actually signed their own bilateral defense pact. So, this is clearly not come out of the blue. And these three aligned countries are no strangers to defense collaboration. For instance, Pakistan helped train Saudi forces for decades. And both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are buyers of Turkish military hardware, including drones and warships. More recently, Saudi Arabia has sought to form and lead a military coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

Among more than a dozen countries have expressed support are Turkey and Pakistan, although exactly how this coalition might function remains to be seen. Regardless, last week's trilateral agreement appears to be the most significant move so far. At a meeting in Mecca, Islam's holiest city on Friday last week, Turkish President Reipta Erdogan, Pakistani Prime Minister Shabis Sharif, and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.

While the precise details of the agreement have not been made public, a joint statement said that the pact was built upon their shared strategic interests and long-standing defense cooperation. The pact, the statement said, intended to further strengthen their collective security and promote peace, security, and stability in the region and beyond by strengthening collective deterrence against any active aggression. The agreement includes a NATO article 5 style clause that states that any armed attack against any one of the three states should be regarded as an a