Turkey invites Egypt to join military pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

Turkey has formally invited Egypt to join a new trilateral defence agreement signed last week with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The pact stipulates that an attack on any of the three member states will be treated as an attack on all. The invitation was extended during a diplomatic meeting, according to officials familiar with the talks. No formal response from Egypt has been reported so far. If accepted, Egypt would become the fourth member of the alliance, which is widely seen as a step toward deeper regional security cooperation. The deal’s mutual-defence clause is its core provision, meaning that any military aggression against one signatory would trigger a collective response from the others. Turkey’s move signals an effort to broaden the pact’s reach across the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt has not commented publicly on the invitation.