The inaugural meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee — the body created under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement — is being held in Istanbul today, the Foreign Office said in a curtain raiser issued on Sunday (MOFA press release 229/2026).
This is on the record, not sourcing. The Foreign Office named the date — 31 August 2026 — and the venue itself.
Who is in the room
It is a ministers-and-chiefs meeting, not a leaders’ summit.
Pakistan is represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, and Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir.
The Foreign Office said the meeting would also be attended by “the respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Defence, as well as Chiefs of General Staff” of Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.
Türkiye’s delegation is Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yaşar Güler and Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, according to a Turkish statement reported by Dawn. The Saudi participants are not named in either the Pakistani or the Turkish statement.
Munir arrived in Türkiye on an official visit, the ISPR said. Dar reached Istanbul on Sunday after concluding his UK visit and was received by Türkiye’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Administration Brig Gen Şenol Varol and Pakistan’s ambassador, Dr Yousaf Junaid (Express Tribune). He then met Fidan, and the two “agreed on the early convening” of the next session of the Pakistan–Türkiye High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, according to a Foreign Office post on X reported by Dawn.
The agenda is not official
The Foreign Office statement gives no agenda. It says only that Pakistan’s participation “signifies Pakistan’s historic bonds of friendship” with the two countries and its desire for regional stability.
What is known about the substance comes from Reuters, citing a Turkish foreign ministry source: that “international security issues will be on the agenda”, with discussions expected to cover enhancing defence capabilities, greater interoperability between the three armed forces, and defence-industry cooperation including joint production and development (Geo News). That is a single, unnamed source.
The pact
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on 7 August 2026 at Al-Safa Palace in Makkah by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Foreign Ministry’s own text of the summit outcome says the agreement is “intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three States shall be regarded as an attack against them all” (MOFA press release 204/2026).
Only those three signed. Two days later Fidan named Egypt as a potential candidate to join, and Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Khalilur Rahman, told parliament last week that Dhaka would consider an invitation “positively” — both reported by the Express Tribune, which is the only outlet carrying the Bangladesh line. Egypt is not a signatory.
The Reuters copy carried by Geo News places the meeting against the backdrop of the war on Iran, which it dates to 28 February. That framing is the news agency’s, not the governments’. No Pakistani, Turkish or Saudi statement ties today’s session to the US strike on Larak Island or to the attacks on US bases in Jordan; the Foreign Office curtain raiser makes no reference to either.
Whether the committee emerges with a standing mechanism, a joint statement, or anything on expansion is what the day will show.
