Photo: Diego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Turkey and Qatar signed a mutual defence agreement on Friday pledging a unified stance against any external armed attack on either country, the latest move by Gulf states to harden their security ties while the war between the United States, Israel and Iran grinds on.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed the pact in Istanbul during the 12th session of the two countries’ Supreme Strategic Committee, held at the Dolmabahçe Palace. A joint statement said the agreement was aimed at bolstering collective defence and regional security and stability.
What the pact covers
Under the agreement, Ankara and Doha will take “a unified position in the face of any external armed attack targeting either or both parties,” according to the joint statement issued after the leaders’ talks. The two sides also agreed to consult each other on threats to their security, as well as on regional and global security issues and defence policies.
Cooperation will be expanded through joint military exercises, collaboration in the defence industry and exchanges of military personnel for training. The agreement reflected the two countries’ commitment to safeguarding their sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as their shared vision of a more secure and stable regional order, the statement said.
Four other agreements — covering trade, education and diplomacy — were also signed during the meeting. The full terms of the defence pact itself were not made public.
Erdogan: preventing a renewed war in the Gulf
Erdogan said the two countries would continue working together “to prevent a renewed outbreak of war in the Gulf region and to promote dialogue and peace.” The warning reflects the anxiety running through the region since the US-Israeli war on Iran began in February, bringing missile exchanges, shipping attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on American bases across the Gulf.
Qatar, which hosts Al Udeid Air Base — the largest US military installation in the Middle East — has been directly exposed to that conflict, while Turkey has watched the fighting from its southern border. Both governments have pressed for diplomacy even as they hedge against the war widening.
Part of a wider Gulf defence build-up
The Qatar pact is the second major mutual defence deal Turkey has struck in recent months. In August, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a regional defence pact under which the three countries would come to each other’s assistance if one of them came under attack, and Turkey’s parliament ratified that Makkah agreement just days before the Qatar deal was signed.
The flurry of pacts points to a region rethinking its security in the middle of a war: Gulf states that once relied almost entirely on Washington for protection are now building formal defence ties with each other as well. Whether those paper commitments would hold in a real crisis remains untested — but the agreements themselves are a signal that the region’s governments expect the danger to last.
Sources: Mail / AFP; Dawn; Al Jazeera