ISLAMABAD(National Times)- In a phone call with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani congratulated Pakistan on the signing of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday.

The joint defence agreement, signed on August 7 between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empowers its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.

In a post on X, FO said that the two leaders spoke last night, during which Dar’s Bahraini counterpart congratulated him on the agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye and also expressed intentions to visit Pakistan in the near future.

Dar, for his part, welcomed the Bahraini foreign minister’s desire to visit and expressed appreciation for his comments.

FO said that during the call, DPM Dar “reiterated Pakistan’s firm commitment to promoting dialogue and diplomacy to achieve peace and stability in the region and beyond”.

Both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Dar have said the pact is defensive in nature, with the latter saying that it is also “open to any country in the region” willing to uphold its fundamental principles.

A day earlier, Dar had felicitated the nation on the agreement’s signing.

The foreign minister noted that the term of treating an attack on one of them as an attack against all three was “consistent with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter”.

The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement has been hailed by the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as an “important strategic step”.

Kuwait, Bahrain and Somalia are among the countries that have welcomed it. Iran’s comments also took a rather positive tone, stressing its stance of pursuing “security mechanisms based on cooperation between regional countries”.