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Bangladesh views the much-discussed Mecca Pact positively, Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman told Parliament on Thursday (August 27).
He said Bangladesh’s participation in the pact would depend on the wishes of the member states.
The foreign minister made the remarks in response to a question during a parliamentary session chaired by Speaker Bir Bikram Major (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmad.
Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan recently signed a joint defence pact aimed at strengthening mutual security cooperation. Under the agreement, an attack on any one of the three countries would be considered an attack on all three.
After nearly a year of negotiations, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the agreement on August 7.
The pact was signed in the holy city of Mecca, giving it added strategic and symbolic significance.
Bangladesh has recently expressed interest in joining the defence alliance, sparking debate over the potential benefits and implications of such a move.
Analysts say discussions on the pact gained momentum following the Gaza-Israel war in 2023 and later evolved into the current trilateral defence arrangement.