Pakistan seems to have gone on a backfoot vis-a-vis Makkah Agreement.
A top military official of the Pakistan Army, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, while refusing to reveal operational details of Pakistan’s defence commitments in public, admitted that the Makkah Agreement is not against any country but is for collective defence and to deter aggression.
The spokesperson for the Army’s public relations wing, ISPR, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said this in an interview given to Al Arabiya English. He said that Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Turkey span several decades and the new agreement has formalized these relations.
“There is no aggressive or interventionist element in the agreement, but it is purely defensive in nature”, he pointed out.
During the interview, when he was asked, “What will Pakistan’s response be if an attack occurs on a country included in the agreement?” In response, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said, “Operational details regarding defense commitments are never disclosed at the public level.”
“There are defense agreements between many countries, but no state discloses the practical details of their implementation. These matters fall within the ambit of operational security and classified information.”
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry also dismissed the impression that this agreement is an alternative or rival to Pakistan’s relations with China.
He said that the defence agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan complements Pakistan’s strategic relations with China.
DG ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry further said regarding the same agreement that “The defense agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey is not a ‘Muslim alliance’.”
According to him, the agreement aims to promote regional stability, security, and non-aggression. At the same time, he also said that the decision regarding the inclusion of any new country in the future will be made by the leadership of the three countries.
A defence agreement was signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey on August 7th, which has been named the ‘Makkah Agreement ‘. Regarding this agreement, the three countries say that it is defensive in nature and under it, an attack on any one of the three countries will be considered an attack on all three.
Referring to Pakistan’s mediation to end Iran war, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that Pakistan was trying to “bring peace to the region” through mediation between the US and Iran. He emphasised that “Pakistan has no personal objective or private interest in this conflict.”
The spokesperson for the Pakistan Army said, “Pakistan’s sole objective is to prevent the conflict from worsening and from spreading horizontally or vertically. Instead of resolving it in the air, land, or sea domains, disputed issues and matters pending settlement should be resolved through dialogue.”
About a question “What did the Pakistani army learn from this conflict?”, regarding the brief war that took place between Pakistan and India in 2025, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry like any other Pakistani general tried to shy away from the reality. He rather said said, “I think the more important question is what lesson the Pakistani army or Pakistan taught during this conflict.”
“The lesson that Pakistan taught was that a military conflict between two nuclear countries, especially two neighbouring nuclear countries, is unacceptable.”
Interestingly, the general used the word “taught” instead of “learned” trying to hide Pakistan army’s humilating defeat in the recent Operation Sindoor.
