• Defence Production Minister Harraj reveals proposal prepared after ‘year of talks’
• Says this agreement is separate from Pak-Saudi defence deal
• Finalisation depends on consensus from all three states
• Turkiye confirms talks held, but no agreement signed so far
KARACHI: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye have prepared a draft defence agreement after nearly a year of talks, Defence Production Minister Raza Hayat Harraj confirmed on Wednesday.
His remarks followed comments by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who said discussions had taken place but no agreement had been signed.
Speaking to Reuters, Mr Harraj said the proposed trilateral arrangement was separate from the bilateral Pakistan-Saudi agreement announced last year and would require consensus among the three countries before it could be finalised.
“The Pakistan-Saudi Arabia-Turkiye trilateral agreement is something that is already in the pipeline,” Mr Harraj told the news agency in an interview. “The draft agreement is already available with us. The draft agreement is already with Saudi Arabia. The draft agreement is already available with Turkiye. And all three countries are deliberating. And this agreement has been there for the last 10 months.”
Meanwhile, asked at a press conference in Istanbul earlier on Thursday about media reports on negotiations between the three sides, Mr Fidan said talks had been held but that no agreement had been signed.
The Turkish foreign minister pointed to a need for broader regional cooperation and trust to overcome distrust, which he said created “cracks and problems” that led to the emergence of external hegemonies or wars and instability stemming from terrorism in the region.
“At the end of all of these, we have a proposal like this: all regional nations must come together to create a cooperation platform on the issue of security,” Mr Fidan said.
Regional issues could be resolved if relevant countries would “be sure of each other,” he added.
“At the moment, there are meetings, talks, but we have not signed any agreement. Our President (Tayyip Erdogan)’s vision is for an inclusive platform that creates wider, bigger cooperation and stability,” Mr Fidan said, without naming Pakistan or Saudi Arabia directly.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported last week that Turkiye was seeking to join the Pak-Saudi defence pact signed in September 2025.
The report said Turkiye viewed the pact “as a way of strengthening security and deterrents when there are questions over the reliability of the US, which has strong military ties with all three countries, and President Donald Trump’s commitment” to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
Saudi Arabia brings financial clout, Pakistan has nuclear capability, ballistic missiles and manpower, while Turkiye has the military experience and has developed a defence industry, Bloomberg quoted Nihat Ali Ozcan, a strategist with Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, as saying.
Asked separately about such reports, Mr Harraj told BBC Urdu that Turkiye, China, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan were “close friendly countries” of Pakistan, with strong strategic ties.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” in Riyadh last year, pledging that any attack on either country would be treated as an act of aggression against both.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026
