Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has invited Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to a meeting of the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in Istanbul later this month (Geo News).
The invitation came in a phone call in which the two exchanged views on regional developments and efforts to promote peace and stability, the Foreign Office said. Dar accepted and confirmed his participation in the R-4 meeting.
Egypt’s presence is what makes this worth watching. The R-4 grouping — Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt — brings together the three signatories of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement plus the country Fidan has repeatedly named as the pact’s likeliest fourth member. He said this month that Egypt would join “in the next stage”, with only “a few technical issues” outstanding, and visited Cairo the following week.
Cairo has said nothing publicly about the agreement, either to accept or decline. An R-4 foreign ministers’ meeting in Istanbul is the natural venue for that silence to end one way or the other.
The meeting falls weeks after the Makkah agreement was signed on August 7, committing the three states to treat an armed attack on any one of them as an attack on all. Turkiye’s defence ministry has since said the pact will establish standing mechanisms bringing together defence ministers, foreign ministers and armed forces chiefs, with joint exercises and cooperation prioritising unmanned systems, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence.
The grouping was formed in recent months to address regional issues, principally the war between the United States and Iran that began on February 28 and has paralysed maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump publicly welcomed the pact on Sunday, calling it “a big, bold and important first step”.
