Turkey's parliament ratifies the Makkah defense pact, committing a NATO member to mutual defense with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia

The pact gives each member something specific. Saudi Arabia gets combat-experienced Pakistani forces and Turkish defense industry under a treaty, without relying only on Washington. Pakistan gets Saudi money and a Turkish arms supply line. Turkey gets Gulf financing for its defense exports and influence in a bloc outside the West. The exposed parties are India, which now faces a Pakistan with treaty allies, and NATO, whose members cannot be sure how Ankara would rank its commitments in a crisis that touches both treaties. Western arms suppliers also lose: Turkish drones and armored vehicles become the default for Gulf and South Asian purchases within the bloc. The consensus treats the pact as symbolic. The 10-year lock-in and ratification by two of the three parliaments make it more binding than a declaration. The precedent is the Baghdad Pact of 1955, which linked Turkey, Pakistan and others and collapsed when its members' interests diverged. This pact has a financial backer and an active threat in the Houthis. The likelier outcome is Saudi ratification within months and joint exercises and Turkish arms orders over the next year. That depends on Egypt joining, which would turn a three-way pact into a regional bloc. A clash between Pakistan and India that tests the clause, or a Saudi refusal to ratify, would prove this read wrong.