More than six countries have expressed interest in joining the Mecca Joint Defence Pact, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said, without naming them.
Dar was speaking at a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, according to Pakistan’s Geo News.
The pact is essentially defensive and has no offensive aim, he said. Its first meeting was held on 31 August, and its headquarters will be in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Pact on 7 August. It states that an attack on any one of the three will be considered an attack on all, an arrangement compared to NATO’s Article 5.
An emergency meeting will be held under the pact next week to review the recent situation in Saudi Arabia, Dar said, claiming the kingdom had already been attacked 17 or 18 times. “We are committed to defending Saudi Arabia,” he said, adding that the UN Charter allows such alliances to act and citing NATO as an example.
Pakistan’s Lieutenant General (retd) Numan Mahmood has been named the alliance’s first secretary general. Dar called him “a very good and devout officer”.
Dar also said there should be no fee or service charge for passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
On Afghanistan, he said Pakistan wished it well but Kabul must ensure its territory is not used against Pakistan, and must show it is acting against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the group Pakistan calls Fitna al-Hindustan.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report