Erdogan eyes expansion of Makkah pact

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict.

The so-called Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

"Our vision for it is not limited to the three countries," the Turkish leader told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat daily. "Rather we aspire for it to grow, and perhaps appropriate conditions will emerge one day for all countries of the region to gather under its umbrella."

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday said Turkey expected Egypt to join the pact "in the next stage", telling the Anadolu state news agency only "a few technical issues" stood in the way.

Egypt has not commented on the agreement nor on the remarks by Fidan, who will visit Cairo on Thursday and Friday.

Cairo has robust military cooperation with Ankara, but has given no indication it intends to sign up to the new security alliance, which contains a NATO-style clause saying any attack on one would be seen as an attack on all.

The five-month US-Iran war has upended the security architecture in the region and forced a rethink of decades of conventional wisdom rooted in US military supremacy.

Erdogan said the pact emerged out of the "new circumstances" in the Middle East with regional players seeking to assume greater responsibility for their own security and stability.

"Regional issues should be resolved by regional actors, and with this action, we consider that we have taken a first step toward achieving that goal," he said. AFP