Tel Aviv: The Mecca Pact involving Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey has implications beyond the Middle East and the recent US-Iran war, with its significance for Europe stemming primarily from Ankara’s role.
The pact, signed on August 7, warrants far greater attention and concern from European countries than it has received so far, a report has stated.
“Europe has spent the last four years almost entirely focused on its eastern frontier. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought NATO back to its original purpose, increased defence expenditure across the continent and forced European governments to think seriously about military security after decades of relative complacency. While Europe continues to look east, however, a very different strategic architecture is developing to its south,” Vas Shenoy, a political researcher, consultant and entrepreneur, wrote in The Times of Israel.
According to the expert, Turkey cannot be regarded as a remote Middle Eastern power, which shares borders with Greece and Bulgaria, controls the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and has expanded its military footprint in Syria and Libya. He added that Ankara is also engaged in a long-standing dispute with Greece and Cyprus over maritime boundaries, territorial waters and economic zones in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Shenoy said the agreement reflects a foreign policy that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursued consistently for more than a decade.
“Turkey does not want to abandon NATO, but neither does it want its foreign policy determined by NATO. It wants to remain inside the Western alliance while simultaneously building an independent sphere of political, economic and military influence,” he stated.
“This policy has often appeared contradictory to Europeans. Turkey purchased the Russian S-400 air defence system while remaining a member of NATO. It has supported Ukraine while keeping channels with Moscow open. It has negotiated migration agreements with the European Union while repeatedly confronting Greece and Cyprus. It intervened militarily in Libya and Syria without waiting for a European or American consensus,” he further added.
The report noted that the agreement could potentially evolve beyond a traditional mutual-defence arrangement into a broader defence-industrial partnership.
“This becomes particularly relevant in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece and Turkey remain NATO allies, but their fundamental disputes have never been resolved. The Aegean, Cyprus, territorial waters, airspace and maritime economic zones continue to produce regular tensions. Turkey’s Blue Homeland doctrine also challenges the maritime order which Greece and Cyprus consider established,” the report mentioned.
(IANS)
