Turkey has offered to help meet Saudi Arabia’s military needs as Houthi attacks on the kingdom intensify, potentially putting the recently signed Saudi Turkey Pakistan defence pact to its first major test.
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According to Reuters, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said Saudi Arabia could have military requirements because of the attacks and that Turkey was ready to provide assistance. “They may have some military needs, especially on some technical issues. We would have no issues in meeting these,” Fidan told broadcaster NTV.
“We see there are very serious attacks on Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity, sovereignty. We have an alliance agreement in our pact. We are in serious solidarity on this point,” Fidan said.
The comments come after Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement last month. The pact stipulates that an armed attack on any one of the three countries will be regarded as an attack on all three, creating a framework for collective defence cooperation.
Pakistan has so far indicated that the pact has not triggered any immediate military response. Islamabad said there had been ...