ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s appointment to provide the first secretary-general of the newly formed Makkah Defense Alliance gives Islamabad a key role in building the institutional framework of the trilateral security arrangement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, analysts said this week.

The three countries agreed at the alliance’s first Strategic Political and Defense Committee meeting in Istanbul on Sunday to establish a permanent secretariat in Saudi Arabia, with the first secretary-general coming from Pakistan for a three-year term.

The alliance grew out of the Makkah Agreement for Joint Defense signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye in August, under which an armed attack against one member would be considered an attack against all three.

At the Istanbul meeting, the three countries agreed to further institutionalize cooperation to strengthen collective deterrence and defense, including through defense industry cooperation and the joint development and production of technology. Türkiye has separately said the alliance could eventually expand to include other countries.

Pakistan’s selection to provide the first secretary-general puts it in an influential position during the alliance’s formative years as the three countries begin translating their collective-defense commitment into a permanent institutional structure, analysts said.

“Given Pakistan’s role as a defining force behind the establishment of this mutual defense arrangement, and its position as a direction-setter for its future evolution, this comes as no surprise,” Pakistani journalist and defense analyst Nasim Zahra told Arab News.

Ahmad Hassan Al-Arbi, an international relations scholar specializing in the geopolitics and strategic dynamics of the Muslim world, said establishing a permanent secretariat indicated the three countries were serious about institutionalizing the alliance.

“The decision to establish a Secretary General and a dedicated secretariat is a very important development,” Al-Arbi said, adding that the alliance could eventually evolve beyond a conventional security pact if its institutional foundations were successfully established.

“A well-structured and permanent institutional framework is essential if the pact is to develop the depth, capacity, continuity, and strategic coherence required to eventually evolve into a broader civilizational alliance.”

PAKISTAN’S DIPLOMATIC REACH

Geopolitical analyst Shazia Anwer Cheema said Pakistan’s selection reflected its longstanding role in regional security and relationships with countries across competing geopolitical blocs.

“Pakistan is playing not only crucial role in the current regional crisis but Pakistan has a history of acting as a deterrence force and regional security stabilizer,” Cheema told Arab News.

She said the initial three-year period would be critical in determining how the alliance operates.

“For the initial days, it is important to articulate the frame of work, its inroads, managerial mechanism as well operational side,” she said.

Cheema cited Pakistan’s ties with Gulf states, Central Asia, Iran, China and Russia, as well as its relationship with the United States, saying these gave Islamabad channels to engage a broad range of regional and global actors.

“Pakistan can talk with coherence and honesty with a range of players in this grand chess board,” she said.

OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

But translating a political collective-defense commitment into an operational arrangement could present significant challenges.

Amjad Sher Ali, a former Pakistani ambassador, pointed to interoperability among armed forces using military equipment sourced from the United States, China, Russia and other countries as one of the issues the alliance would need to address.

“The alliance faces several immediate structural challenges,” Ali said.

“Developing compatible command, control, communications, and operational procedures will therefore be essential to transforming the political commitment into credible collective defense,” he added, saying clear divisions between political decision-making and military command would also be important given the geography of the three founding members.

“The Defense Alliance has formally launched a secretariat. It has to go through many levels and stages to reach a formal shape,” Ali said.

The agreement has not yet publicly detailed what military assistance members would be required to provide if another member were attacked, or whether the alliance would eventually establish an integrated military command structure.

For Al-Arbi, however, the significance of the new institutional structure could ultimately extend beyond collective defense.

“Taken together, these developments suggest that the Makkah Pact should not be viewed merely through the lens of a conventional security arrangement,” he said. “What is emerging appears to be an attempt to build a much deeper and more institutionalized framework of cooperation among major and most powerful Muslim countries.”

If that institutional foundation is successfully established, Al-Arbi said, the grouping could ultimately develop into “a much broader strategic and civilizational alliance.”