Makkah Defense Agreement; Pakistani Prime Minister Welcomes US President’s Support

Makkah Defense Agreement; Pakistani Prime Minister Welcomes US President’s Support
(Asghar Ali Mubarak)
The recent “Makkah Joint Defense Agreement” between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey has shaken up the geopolitical landscape of the region, which US President Donald Trump has hailed as a major step towards security and self-reliance in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed the US support, calling it an important step towards making the region’s defenses impregnable. The agreement, which effectively reflects a NATO-style defense partnership in which an attack on one would be considered an attack on all, will strengthen military deterrence in the region.
With this development, Washington seems optimistic about transferring the responsibility for Middle East security to these allies,
Inside Pakistan, the agreement is being seen as a golden opportunity for its defense industry and economic stability, under which joint military production and technology transfer will be pursued. According to the Saudi ambassador, the practical implementation of this agreement (on the ground) has begun, and a formal secretariat will be established soon. Although the authorities are calling it defensive, this tripartite alliance will affect the security framework of world powers. Now the question is how the current government uses this diplomatic and military card to revive the country’s economy.This new trilateral defense bloc, born on the holy land of Makkah, is not just a traditional military alliance of a few Muslim countries, but the real point is that this alliance will shake the foundations of the traditional security framework of the world powers and the global hierarchy established since World War II. For decades, the security framework of the Middle East and South Asia has been indebted to external capitals like Washington, London, and Moscow, where the superpowers controlled the defense balance of the region at will, but Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have made a very bold decision to reject external crutches and take control of the region into local hands through this Makkah agreement. There is now a growing debate in diplomatic circles that this alliance will weaken NATO’s grip because Turkey, despite being a very important and strategic member of NATO itself, is now forming a parallel military framework with Islamabad and Riyadh instead of the US, which is a big surprise for the Western world. Insiders say that US President Donald Trump’s unexpected welcome to this agreement is actually an acknowledgement of a major constraint and change in the US security framework, as Washington is now tired of global conflicts and wants to secure itself by shifting the billion-dollar burden of Middle Eastern security onto the shoulders of these local allies. On the other hand, this tripartite bloc has also put Beijing and Moscow’s security framework to a new test. Where China was influencing the region through its economic network until now, Pakistan is now emerging as a military and security alternative. The biggest internal turmoil has been in the security chambers of New Delhi and Tel Aviv, where until now the impression was that they could isolate Pakistan or other Muslim countries, but this new framework has completely changed their traditional security ideas because now aggression on any front means inviting the combined wrath of the three major military and economic powers. The truth is that the Makkah Agreement has shattered the monopoly of the world powers, and the inside story is that now the world will have to run according to the new security framework of Islamabad, Ankara, and Riyadh instead of the principles set by the superpowers. While this new trilateral defense bloc, born on the holy land of Makkah, has turned the tables on the region, the inside story is that the detailed reactions of the world’s three major superpowers, the United States, China, and Russia, to this historic agreement and the internal wrangling have brought global diplomacy to a very interesting turn. Reports coming out of Washington’s diplomatic corridors suggest that there is a deep American strategic compulsion behind President Donald Trump’s open support for the alliance on social media. The Trump administration has long been looking for excuses to get out of the endless military conflicts in the Middle East under the “America First” policy and save its trillions of dollars, so Washington has seen this alliance as an excellent alternative where the Middle East security framework can be transferred to the shoulders of local Muslim powers without risking the lives of American soldiers. However, inner circles of the Pentagon are still deeply concerned about this parallel military role of Turkey because, despite being an important member of NATO, Ankara is now getting closer to Islamabad and Riyadh rather than the Western alliance. On the other hand, if we turn to Beijing, China’s detailed response appears to be a very measured diplomatic masterpiece and deeply worrying internally. The bottom line is that China, which established its economic and political influence in the Middle East by brokering a historic peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is feeling threatened by the formation of this new military bloc, as Beijing is not in favor of any military alliance that apparently has the green light of US President Trump. The Chinese authorities are also keeping a close eye on the fact that Pakistan’s key military role in this defense alliance does not reduce the federal government’s focus on the economic projects of CPEC, which is why China has publicly talked about regional stability but has sought a briefing from Islamabad through diplomatic channels on the long-term strategic dimensions of this agreement. As far as the Kremlin and Moscow are concerned, Russia is looking at this trilateral alliance through a completely different lens, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close circles believe that this bloc could actually prove to be the final nail in NATO’s coffin. Russian defense experts are internally celebrating that Turkey’s exit from the security framework set by Washington and signing such an agreement with nuclear power Pakistan will shatter NATO unity, but at the same time, Russia is also worried that if the command of this bloc completely follows the strategic signals of the United States, it could become a new security challenge for Central Asia and the southern parts of Russia. The truth is that the Mecca agreement has awakened the sleep of world powers and the inside story is that the United States wants to lighten its burden with it, China is afraid of American influence in it, while Russia is dreaming of the disintegration of the Western alliance through it, and amidst all these global contradictions, Islamabad, Ankara and Riyadh are busy implementing their dream of a new world quadrant.While this new tripartite defense bloc has thrown world powers into a frenzy, the insider’s reaction to the Makkah Accord has come from New Delhi, where diplomatic and military circles are currently in a state of emergency and frenzy. According to Indian media and South Bloc insiders, India’s security advisers and foreign ministry officials were shaken when they saw that New Delhi’s years of diplomatic efforts aimed at isolating Pakistan in the Muslim world and on the global stage crumbled in seconds. In the past few years, India had tried to give the impression that it had broken the historical brotherly relations between Islamabad and Riyadh by building billions of dollars of economic partnership and strategic relations with Saudi Arabia, but the Makkah Agreement has blown the air out of all this diplomatic balloon of the Modi government and Indian diplomats are now making emergency contacts in the Arab capitals to remove the fear. has completely paralyzed India’s conventional war doctrines against Pakistan, particularly the “Cold Start Doctrine” and plans for any possible limited military adventure on Azad Kashmir. The most dangerous clause of the Mecca Agreement—that an attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all—has put Indian generals to sleep because now any aggression against Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC) or the international border would mean a formal declaration of war against Turkey, the second major NATO power, and Saudi Arabia, the economic powerhouse of the Muslim world. The strategic think tanks of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also internally nervous that US President Donald Trump has openly supported this Muslim military alliance, which means that India is no longer in a position to put diplomatic pressure on Pakistan even with a gun on America’s shoulder. The most ridiculous and true inside news on the diplomatic front is that New Delhi is now playing the victim card in front of Washington and the European Union by calling this alliance a “military alignment of the Muslim world”. is trying unsuccessfully, but after US President Trump’s green signal, even in the West, no one is going to listen to this decade of India. The Indian media is now busy day and night propagandizing that this combination of nuclear power, Pakistan’s military prowess, Turkey’s advanced drone technology, and Saudi Arabia’s unlimited financial resources will permanently tilt the balance of power in the region in favor of Pakistan. The truth is that the Makkah Agreement has turned India’s long-term foreign policy on its head, and the inside story is that New Delhi’s diplomatic circles are now in deep despair and bewilderment because they know that the era of showing eyes to Pakistan is over and that Islamabad, along with its Makkah and Ankara allies, has drawn a new line of defense that no one can cross.