On 7 August, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a historic agreement in Mecca aimed at strengthening defence cooperation against common threats. The “Mecca Pact”, a term coined for the deal by various analysts, builds upon a previous bilateral treaty between Riyadh and Islamabad, stipulating that an attack on any of these nations is an attack on all and underscoring the Islamic world’s ambition to reduce security dependence on foreign actors.