Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held phone calls with Saudi Arabian and Turkish foreign ministers on Sunday and followed up on the understandings reached at the inaugural meeting of the Makkah Defence Alliance last month, the Foreign Office (FO) said.

The joint defence pact was signed on August 7 and empowers the member states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them. Its inaugural meeting was held on August 31 in Istanbul, where it was decided that the alliance’s secretariat would be initially headed by Pakistan for three years.

The three countries also agreed to work towards strengthening their defence capabilities and the cohesion of their armed forces through joint activities, robust defence industry cooperation, and joint technology development and production. Moreover, through the institutionalised and resolute implementation of the Makkah agreement, the three countries also agreed to provide essential contributions to regional peace and stability.

In a series of posts on social media platform X, FO said that DPM Dar held separate phone calls with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday.

In the call with the Saudi FM, the two leaders discussed regional and international developments, including matters of mutual interest at multilateral fora.

“They also discussed follow-up on the understandings reached at the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee of the Makkah Defence Alliance, held in Istanbul, and agreed to remain in close contact,” FO said.

In a separate post, FO said that Dar also spoke to Fidan and thanked him for hosting the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement in Istanbul.

FO said the two leaders followed up on understandings reached and discussed ways to further advance cooperation under the framework.

“The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on regional and international developments. They also discussed matters of mutual interest and opportunities to further strengthen cooperation at multilateral fora,” FO added.

The tripartite agreement was signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a summit at Al-Safa Palace.

Pakistan has said that the pact is “open to any country in the region” willing to uphold its fundamental principles. And while Turkiye has said that there is a possibility of Egypt joining the pact, there has been no confirmation from Cairo.

Abdelatty invites Dar

Earlier in the day, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty invited DPM Dar to visit his country, FO said.

A statement issued by the FO said that the two held a telephone call in which they exchanged views on Egypt-Pakistan bilateral relations and regional and international developments.

Abdelatty invited Dar to “hold a bilateral visit to Egypt at his earliest convenience”, it added.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to remaining “engaged and involved” on regional security matters, agreeing to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this month.

Last November, the Egyptian foreign minister undertook an official two-day visit to Pakistan at DPM Dar’s invitation.

During the visit, he met Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, where the two discussed “defence and security cooperation, military exchanges, training collaborations and regional peace and stability”, FO said at the time. Abdelatty also met President Asif Ali Zardari during the visit.

Pakistan and Egypt are also members of a quadrilateral regional alliance known as the R-4 Group (Regional Four), an arrangement which also includes Saudi Arabia and Turkiye. The R-4 group has been focused on regional security and emerged in March amid mediation efforts between the US and Iran.