Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye have drafted a trilateral defense agreement after months of negotiations, signaling a deepening military alignment among the three regional powers, Reuters reported on 15 January.

The proposed pact was disclosed by Pakistan’s Minister for Defense Production, Raza Hayat Harraj, who said the draft has been circulating between Islamabad, Riyadh, and Ankara for roughly 10 months. He told Reuters the agreement remains under deliberation and requires full consensus before it can be finalized.

Harraj stressed that the trilateral framework is separate from an existing bilateral defense accord signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia last year.

“The Pakistan–Saudi Arabia–Turkiye trilateral agreement is something that is already in pipeline,” he said, adding that identical draft texts are already in the hands of all three governments.

The talks come as regional states reassess security arrangements after a period of mounting instability and Israeli military actions that have repeatedly driven tensions across West Asia.

Following the US-backed Israeli attack on Qatar, regional actors were pushed to reassess their security assumptions, accelerating moves toward new defense arrangements outside Washington’s increasingly unreliable security umbrella.

While the Pakistani minister framed the deal as defensive, its timing reflects wider anxieties over external interventions and unreliable western security guarantees.

Speaking in Istanbul a day later, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that talks were ongoing but that no agreement had been concluded.

“At present, there are discussions and talks underway, but no agreement has yet been signed,” he told reporters, adding that Ankara favors a broader regional security framework rather than a narrow pact.

“At the moment, there are meetings, talks, but we have not signed any agreement,” Fidan said, arguing that instability in the region has been fueled by “external hegemonies,” wars, and terrorism.

He called for regional countries to “be sure of each other” as a basis for lasting security, pointing to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s preference for an inclusive security platform rather than narrow alliances.

The draft trilateral deal builds on expanding Saudi–Pakistani military cooperation, including a mutual defense pact signed in September that treats an attack on one as an attack on both.

Pakistan’s long-standing military ties with both Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, combined with Riyadh’s financial clout and Ankara’s defense industry, have made the proposed framework attractive to all three.

Officials say the agreement remains a work in progress for the time being, with negotiations continuing behind closed doors.