A new ‘NATO of the East?’ Why the Mecca pact isn’t quite what it seems

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have signed the Mecca Joint Defence Pact, a new collective defence arrangement that connects the Middle East with South Asia. Its central promise is striking: an armed attack against any one of the three countries will be treated as an attack against them all. This language has prompted comparisons with NATO, whose members make a similar commitment under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. By bringing together a major global oil producer (Saudi Arabia), a…