New Delhi: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey Monday agreed to activate “deterrence measures” under the Mecca defence pact, and rapidly deploy military forces to the Gulf kingdom in response to the Houthi offensive in Yemen.
The decision was announced after the defence and foreign ministers of the three countries held an emergency meeting in Riyadh. It marked the first time the alliance, known as the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, has been invoked since the pact was signed on 7 August.
The agreement declares that an attack on any one of the three countries will be treated as an attack on all three, echoing a central provision of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation founding treaty.
“The committee agreed to activate collective deterrence measures, within the framework of the Alliance, in response to the attacks and all those responsible for them,” Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, said in a post on social media platform X.
The Emergency Meeting of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee under the Makkah Alliance for Defense reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of our countries in confronting the heinous attacks against the Kingdom and the holy sites. The committee agreed to activate collective… pic.twitter.com/4hGjcJcw25
— Khalid bin Salman خالد بن سلمان (@kbsalsaud) October 5, 2026
He said the alliance had “reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of our countries, in confronting the heinous attacks against the Kingdom, and holy sites”.
A separate joint statement issued by Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the three countries would “provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment” to Saudi Arabia. The commitments, the statement said, would be carried out under “approved arrangements” and in accordance with the laws of each country.
The announcements came only hours after forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government launched a counter-offensive to retake territory captured by the Iran-aligned Houthis last month.
The Yemeni forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, said they had retaken the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea and were now in control of the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The Saudi-led coalition also confirmed its participation in the Yemeni government’s offensive, saying that 100 of its fighter jets were providing air support.
The Houthis, meanwhile, claimed to have attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and an Aramco refinery in the coastal city of Rabigh. The group also said it had struck a series of other sites, including an airport, an airbase and other critical locations. There was no confirmation from Riyadh of the Houthi claims.
The three members of the alliance together have nearly 1.4 million active-duty troops, about 3,400 military aircraft, 6,000 tanks and more than 340 naval assets, according to the 2026 Global Firepower Index. Pakistan, the nuclear-armed member of the pact, has the largest military force with among the three, with 660,000 troops.
The agreement initially provided few details about the military obligations of each country, although the three governments subsequently took steps to formalise the alliance.
After the Houthis fired a barrage of missiles toward Saudi Arabia in early September, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that an attack on the kingdom could trigger the pact. “If there is unprovoked aggression, or a spillover of whatever is happening in Yemen into Saudi Arabia, definitely the Mecca agreement will become operational,” Asif told Geo News.
Until Monday, however, the alliance had taken no action. Last month, Pakistan appointed retired Lt. Gen Nauman Mahmood as the first secretary general for the secretariat of the pact.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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