Why Saudi Arabia, Egypt are wary of Turkey’s proposed 4-way defense pact with Pakistan
The proposed framework faces major hurdles and fault lines, ranging from NATO constraints to Israeli opposition and weak military integration.
ANKARA — Turkey’s push to form a security alliance with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan is facing obstacles, even as the idea has gained momentum through increased diplomatic engagement since the Iran war.
Ankara has long explored the prospect of such an alliance as part of a broader effort to hedge against regional instability and reduce reliance on Western-led frameworks. However, differing threat perceptions among the four countries, political disagreements over regional conflicts, Turkey’s commitments to NATO and uneven military interoperability are complicating efforts to translate this outreach into a formal, structured partnership.
Background
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a strategic defense pact on Sept. 17, 2025, formalizing a collective security framework under which an attack on one would be treated as an attack on both. The move is widely seen as Riyadh’s effort to bolster deterrence and diversify its military partnerships following a series of perceived American retrenchments in the region. The agreement came as strategic and economic competition between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intensified, with Yemen as a key fault line.
