Bangladesh has said it would “positively” consider joining the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement if invited by its existing members, with Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman telling parliament that Dhaka would assess the potential benefits before making a decision.
Mr Rahman said Bangladesh had not yet taken a decision on joining the pact because membership depended on the intentions of the countries that had signed the agreement.
“If they invite Bangladesh to join, then we will definitely consider it positively,” he said, adding that the government would evaluate the agreement’s potential benefits.
The foreign minister described the pact as a collective self-defence mechanism for Muslim countries and said it was essentially an internal matter for the Muslim world.
Opposition leader and Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman also said on Thursday that joining the agreement was a sovereign decision for Bangladesh.
He said any decision taken in the country’s national interest should not be a matter of concern for other countries.
Earlier this week, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir said Dhaka had expressed interest in joining the pact and viewed the possibility positively.
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed by Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan at a trilateral summit in Makkah on Aug 7. The agreement aims to strengthen collective security, deepen defence cooperation and promote peace and stability in the region and beyond.
Under the pact, an attack on one member is to be treated as an attack on all three, reflecting their commitment to collective security and defence cooperation.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had previously signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement in Riyadh last September, under which an attack on either country would be considered an act of aggression against both.
The agreement has received support from the United States, Bahrain and Somalia, while Türkiye has expressed hope that Egypt would join the pact at a later stage.
