RIYADH: Turkey will not join a mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a source close to the Saudi military told AFP on Saturday, after a Turkish official said earlier this month that they had entered talks aimed at entering the alliance.
Speculation has been rife that the three countries were intent on forming a powerful alliance amid soaring tensions in the region, following Israeli air strikes in Doha over the summer targeting Hamas officials that preceded Iran’s bombing of a US air base in Qatar. “Turkey won’t join the defence pact with Pakistan,” the source told AFP, dismissing reports of negotiations.
“It’s a bilateral pact with Pakistan and will remain a bilateral pact”. A Gulf official also confirmed the information. “This is a bilateral defensive relationship with Pakistan. We have common agreements with Turkey but the one with Pakistan will stay bilateral,” the official said. The defence agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, announced last year raised many questions, particularly about its possible nuclear component, given that Islamabad possesses nuclear weapons.
The Pakistan-Saudi pact was signed just months after Pakistan and India fought an intense four-day conflict in May that killed more than 70 people on both sides in missile, drone and artillery fire, the worst clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours since 1999. Pakistan and India, also a nuclear power, have long accused each other of backing militant forces to destabilise one another.
Saudi Arabia is believed to have played a key role in defusing the conflict.
Riyadh also maintains good relations with Delhi.
India’s rapidly developing economy relies heavily on petroleum imports, with Saudi Arabia ranked as its third-largest supplier according to the Indian foreign ministry.
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