Arabie saoudite — La Turquie et le Golfe

Synthèse

The Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister and the Turkish President signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement at Al-Safa Palace on 7 August 2026, alongside the Pakistani Prime Minister. The joint statement of the summit, published by the Saudi Press Agency and by the Pakistani foreign ministry, says the agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all, and provides for developing all aspects of defence cooperation. On 31 August the two states' foreign ministers, defence ministers and chiefs of general staff met in Istanbul with Pakistan's as the agreement's Strategic Political and Defence Committee; their joint statement, issued by the Turkish foreign ministry, records an intention to institutionalise cooperation further, a Secretariat to be headquartered in Saudi Arabia under a Secretary General with Pakistan providing the first holder for three years, and commitments on defence-industry cooperation, joint technology development and production, interoperability and cohesion between the three armed forces. Turkish officials have stated publicly that the pact is not directed at any specific party and is open to other states, and that the degree, form and format of any response would be settled by consultation. On 24 September the three foreign ministers, meeting in New York, agreed to convene their chiefs of staff to explore ways to assist Saudi Arabia under the agreement, which Türkiye described as technical negotiations; on 25 September the chiefs met in Riyadh and pledged intelligence cooperation, military coordination and the integration of defence capabilities. It was the first consultation held under the agreement; no invocation, contribution or command arrangement was announced. On 5 October the agreement's committee, meeting in emergency session in Riyadh, decided to move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective-defence commitments and to provide the agreed forces and capabilities for rapid deployment in the kingdom, under approved arrangements that are not published; it named no force, size, mission or command, and cited no invocation. On 8 October Foreign Minister Fidan said the work to send the agreement's text to the Turkish parliament for ratification had been completed, and two Turkish officials told Reuters that Ankara was sending mainly defensive and technical support to Saudi Arabia, without saying it was provided under the agreement. Foreign Minister Fidan has said Türkiye would have no problem meeting Saudi military needs in certain technical areas. On 20 October three parliamentary sources told Reuters the government had submitted the agreement to parliament for ratification. The parliament's register lists the approval bill as 2/3961, received on 21 October and referred to the National Defence and Foreign Affairs commissions; the Foreign Affairs Commission placed it on its agenda for 27 October. The sixteen-article text submitted with the bill was published in Turkish by Medyascope on 20 October and in English by The National on 21 October, which said a Turkish parliamentary source and a Pakistani official confirmed it. Article 2 treats any external armed attack on a party as an attack on all; in case of an armed attack or military aggression against a party "by another country or a group of countries", the others are to assist it immediately, deciding the extent and nature of their support after assessing what is needed, in exercise of the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Article 8 sets up the Strategic Political and Defence Committee of foreign and defence ministers and chiefs of staff, admits other states only by consensus of the core parties, and seats a Secretariat in Saudi Arabia. Under Article 16 the agreement enters into force on the last deposit of ratification and remains in force indefinitely; a party may withdraw after ten years from its entry into force, on at least three months' written notice. On 23 October Defence Minister Güler said Türkiye did not envisage entering any clashes with the Houthis and would set the scope of any support to Saudi Arabia once parliament had ratified. On 27 October the Foreign Affairs Commission approved the bill, which goes to the General Assembly. Deputy Foreign Minister Levent Gümrükçü told the commission that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had completed their domestic ratification procedures, that no deployment under the agreement was currently planned, and that any deployment of Turkish forces abroad after entry into force would fall under Article 92 of the Turkish Constitution. On 26 October the Saudi defence minister led a delegation with Pakistan's army chief and Türkiye's intelligence chief to Tehran, where they met President Pezeshkian; the Saudi foreign ministry said the aim was to open negotiating channels and prevent renewed escalation. On 31 October Syria's foreign minister said at the Manama Dialogue that discussions were under way to evaluate Syria's entry into the alliance; Article 8 admits new states only by consensus of the core parties, and no accession has been announced.

Pourquoi c’est important

The most significant new security arrangement a Gulf state entered during the war was made outside the Gulf Cooperation Council, with a state that is not a member of it, in the same month the Council's own leaders called for faster military integration. Whether such arrangements supplement the Council or displace it is a question this module tracks rather than answers. What the September 2026 attacks on Saudi territory added is a second question the record now carries: whether the institutions agreed in Istanbul acquire a procedure that produces an identifiable trilateral response, or remain a forum beside the bilateral and maritime arrangements that are doing the work.

Accords

• Accord de défense commune de Makkah · signé le 2026-08-07

  Signed at the Makkah Al-Mukarramah summit for joint defence by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan. The collective-defence undertaking is in the parties' own published summit statement. The text submitted with Türkiye's approval bill (2/3961, October 2026) was published by the press and authenticated by unnamed Turkish and Pakistani officials; no signatory has published it, and Vigil has not read it at the parliament.

Événements associés

• L’Arabie saoudite, la Turquie et le Pakistan signent l’accord de défense commune de Makkah 7 août 2026

  Diplomatique · Militaire

• Le comité politique et de défense de l’accord de Makkah se réunit pour la première fois 31 août 2026

  Diplomatique · Militaire

• La plus forte vague d’attaques houthies contre le territoire saoudien de ce cycle 8 sept. 2026, se poursuivant jusqu’au 3 oct.

  Military · Energy

• Les chefs d’état-major de l’accord de Makkah se réunissent à Riyad sur le soutien à l’Arabie saoudite 23 – 25 sept. 2026

  Militaire · Diplomatique

• Le comité de l’accord de Makkah décide de mettre en œuvre ses engagements de défense collective en Arabie saoudite 5 oct. 2026

  Militaire · Diplomatique

Ce qui reste inconnu

• The text in circulation is the one submitted with Türkiye's approval bill, as published by the press and authenticated by unnamed officials; no signatory has published it. Its Article 2 leaves the extent and nature of assistance to each party's own assessment and names attacks by "another country or a group of countries". Whether that reaches a non-state attacker is not stated by any signatory, and no response procedure is published.
• The Istanbul joint statement names a Secretariat and a Secretary General but no consultation procedure, threshold, command arrangement or force allocation. No such machinery has been published since.
• No formal invocation of the agreement by any signatory has been publicly reported as of 26 September 2026. The first trilateral consultation held under it — the chiefs of staff in Riyadh on 25 September — named areas of cooperation and no contribution, threshold or procedure; the Associated Press reported on 16 September that Turkish officials had received no Saudi request under the agreement.
• The agreement is trilateral. Its Türkiye–Pakistan limb has no Gulf party and is outside this module's boundary; it is not authored, and the module makes no claim about it.
• Commission approval is not ratification: the bill still needs a General Assembly vote, and the commission's report was not yet on the parliament's register when read on 28 October, and the General Assembly agenda dated 28 October, read on 1 November, did not list the bill. Saudi and Pakistani completion of ratification rests on the Turkish deputy foreign minister's statement; no Saudi or Pakistani instrument or deposit was read. A Turkish deployment would need a separate step under Article 92 in any case.