At a time when the Middle East's map of influence and web of alliances seems to be in flux, the announcement of a mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan has raised eyebrows. Is a new regional axis taking form?
Signed in Makkah, the NATO-esque agreement stipulates that any armed attack on one of the three states will be regarded as an attack on all three. The signatories maintain that the pact is defensive and directed at no specific country, yet its timing is hardly coincidental with the conflict between Iran and its regional allies on one side and the US and Israel on the other intensifying, putting the security of the Gulf, the Red Sea and the region as a whole in serious jeopardy.
Only days before the mutual defence agreement was signed, the Saudi Ministry of Defence announced the establishment of a Saudi-led multinational defensive maritime coalition. Fourteen states signed its founding declaration in Riyadh, with the stated aim of protecting maritime security in the region, safeguarding global trade routes, and securing energy supplies and shipping through the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden.
The two developments cannot be separated, and the messages carried by these alliances are directed on several fronts. The clearest is aimed at Tehran and, through it, at its regional proxies. Since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war against Iran more than a year ago, Iran has attacked Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states and Jordan with thousands of drones, alongside ballistic missiles aimed at civilian and military installations. Tehran has also mobilised its militias in Iraq and Yemen against Saudi Arabia, closed the Strait of Hormuz and, through the Houthis, threatened to target Saudi vessels in the Bab al-Mandab.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most vital energy arteries. The Red Sea, meanwhile, is a strategic commercial route linking the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. It is therefore significant that the agreement between the three states explicitly emphasises the protection of shipping lanes. Their defence cooperation extends beyond land and into the maritime domain.
