Riyadh(National Times)- A meeting of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement will be held on Monday in Riyadh and will focus on regional developments and ongoing cooperation among the member states, the Foreign Office (FO) confirmed.
In a statement on social media platform X, the FO said Pakistan’s delegation to the meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee (SPDC) will include Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.
“The meeting will also be attended by the respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Defence, as well as Chiefs of General Staff of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Türkiye,” FO added.
It said that the member states will discuss “latest developments in the region and review ongoing cooperation under the framework of the Makkah Agreement”.
FO added that Pakistan’s participation signified its “resolve to continue contributing towards regional peace and stability”.
In another post, the FO said Dar arrived in Madina earlier today ahead of the Riyadh meeting.
DPM Dar paid his respects at the Prophet’s (PBUH) Mosque and offered prayers. Following this, Dar proceeded to Riyadh for the meeting.
In Riyadh, the FO said Dar would be joined by CDF Munir and Asif.
Last week, DPM Dar confirmed the meeting while addressing a press briefing. He said the “emergency meeting” would focus on recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The development comes as Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition government launched a major military campaign on Sunday to recapture territory held by the Houthis.
Fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis showed no signs of abating over the weekend, with the Houthis saying the kingdom had launched dozens of strikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa, after which they attacked an Aramco facility with ballistic missiles and drones south of Riyadh.
The foes have traded strikes since the Houthis seized all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait in a lightning offensive.
Meanwhile, the defence pact, signed on Aug 7, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empower its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them.
The first meeting of the SPDC was held in Istanbul on Aug 31, during which it was decided that the alliance’s secretariat will be initially headed by Pakistan for three years. Retired Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood has been appointed as the first secretary general of the alliance.
On Sept 25, the military chiefs of Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia met in Riyadh for urgently convened talks under the pact in light of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
On Sept 18, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia, saying Pakistan will go to “any extent” to defend the Gulf state, adding that Islamabad’s commitment to the kingdom’s security is “unconditional”.
Defence minister Asif has also reaffirmed that Pakistan would “practically and diplomatically” stand by Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s Houthi rebels if the situation escalated.
