India on Friday said it was monitoring the developments after Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a trilateral defence agreement amid growing security concerns in the region.
"We are closely following this development and will keep you updated," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press briefing.
The agreement was signed during a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
The pact is meant to bolster collective deterrence against any act of aggression, the three countries said in a joint statement.
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The agreement also states that an armed attack against any one of the three countries would be treated as an attack against all three, marking a significant step towards closer defence and security cooperation among Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.
"The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three States shall be regarded as an attack against them all. It further provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defence cooperation among the three States,” the Pakistan foreign ministry said in a statement, according to news agency AP.
Turkey has NATO's second-largest military, while Saudi Arabia is the most powerful Gulf state and is home to Islam's holiest sites as well as one of the world's largest oil-exporting economies. Pakistan, meanwhile, is the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons.
Earlier, Turkey's Haberturk television and other media outlets reported that the agreement is expected to pave the way for joint military exercises and training, technology transfers, and intelligence sharing, AP reported.
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Since the war began on February 28, Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly hit by Iran, as well as Tehran's allies, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.
The agreement comes after nearly a year of negotiations. In January, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said that Ankara backed the creation of a broader regional security framework focused on strengthening cooperation and promoting stability.
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