![\"Mecca](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133706983,imgsize-147125,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg\" "\\"Bangladesh")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nIn August, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and T\u00fcrkiye unveiled what has informally been dubbed the \u201cIslamic Nato\u201d. Named after Makkah, Islam\u2019s holiest city, the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement or simply the Mecca pact\u2014is based on the principle that an armed attack on one member would be considered an attack on all three, similar to Nato’s Article 5.Since the pact was announced, Bangladesh has signalled that it could join the grouping. Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has not publicly commented on the possibility, but his foreign minister and junior ministers have said Dhaka is \u201cinterested\u201d and would respond \u201cpositively\u201d if invited.Against that backdrop, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman\u2019s invitation to Tarique Rahman to visit the Kingdom is also likely to attract added attention.What lies behind Dhaka\u2019s interest in the pact is less clear. But several factors could be shaping its thinking.<\/p>\n Over the years, Bangladesh, as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, has followed a policy of not taking sides with major powers during conflicts. Experts also point out that, unlike the three founding members of the Mecca security alliance, Bangladesh does not face the kind of immediate external military threat confronting some of the pact\u2019s founding members.Others have raised concerns about the agreement\u2019s \u201ccollective security\u201d principle, arguing that it could draw Dhaka into a war not of its own making.<\/p>\n What is Mecca Joint Defence Agreement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Why, then, are Bangladesh\u2019s ministers talking about joining the tri-nation agreement?According to Professor Sreeradha Datta, who teaches International Affairs at OP Jindal Global University, Bangladesh would definitely want to leverage the interest of other countries in it.\u201cI think right now, Bangladesh would like to have a reach beyond the (immediate) region. And if others are getting interested in Bangladesh, why wouldn’t they leverage it?\u201d Professor Datta told The Times of India.Besides, the three countries would offer Bangladesh different advantages. Pakistan brings military and strategic weight in South Asia and is the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons; T\u00fcrkiye offers high-tech defence capabilities and technology, as well as Nato\u2019s second-largest military; and Saudi Arabia brings economic and diplomatic weight.<\/p>\n What Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye bring to the table<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Taken together, these ties could give Dhaka access to a wider range of strategic, military and economic partnerships, while allowing it to expand its reach beyond the immediate region. In return, Bangladesh would bring a sizable military to the alliance and give the grouping a member strategically located on the Bay of Bengal.<\/p>\n On August 30, a day before the alliance\u2019s first meeting in T\u00fcrkiye’s Istanbul, Bangladesh\u2019s foreign affairs minister Khalilur Rahman reiterated a point he had made previously: that joining the Mecca pact was a matter for the world\u2019s \u201cMuslim family.”<\/p>\n Bangladesh would positively consider joining the Mecca defence, if invited… It is an internal matter of \u201cour Muslim family\u201d with no scope for others to be concerned about it<\/p>\n Khaliliur Rahman, Bangladesh foreign minister The minister’s framing of the agreement, therefore, allows Dhaka to present its interest partly through the lens of shared religious identity, even though formal membership would carry significant strategic obligations.Professor Datta, however, also pointed to Bangladesh\u2019s longstanding interests with these nations.\u201cThey (Bangladesh) have a lot of interests like energy and remittance and many other interests with these countries. In any case, it has a very growing relationship with Turkiye and has always had very good engagements with them,\u201d she said.Meanwhile, Pakistan claimed after the bloc’s Istanbul meeting that several other Muslim-majority states had expressed interest in joining the pact, suggesting that the grouping could expand while remaining exclusively Muslim-majority.<\/p>\n Bangladesh ministers have repeatedly asserted that the Tarique Rahman government\u2019s approach to the Saudi Arabia-Pakistan-T\u00fcrkiye military alliance is guided by its \u201cBangladesh First\u201d policy, with \u201cnational interests at its core.\u201dForeign minister Khalilur Rahman, for instance, stated that Bangladesh will \u201cnever bow its head to anyone again\u201d and that the current government has \u201cburied the subservient foreign policy.\u201dProfessor Datta said there is also a domestic political dimension, with the incumbent government potentially seeking to appeal to a constituency that remains deeply invested in the \u201cHasina factor.\u201d\u201cGiven the tense relationship with India, the domestic constituency is of course very important and there is a large constituency that obviously considers the Hasina factor very strongly,\u201d she said, referring to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in a student-led movement in 2024 and has been living in New Delhi since then.Against continuing political hostility towards Hasina, Dhaka\u2019s signalling on the pact could also carry a domestic political dividend, particularly among constituencies supportive of a more independent foreign-policy posture.Therefore, the government\u2019s signalling on the Mecca pact can be politically useful, whether Bangladesh ultimately joins the alliance or not.<\/p>\n As an immediate neighbour, India cannot afford to ignore Bangladesh\u2019s strategic choices. The two countries share a more than 4,000-km-long border spanning five Indian states, making Dhaka central to New Delhi\u2019s security and strategic calculus.But diplomatic tensions, with the non-extradition of Sheikh Hasina at the centre of the dispute, continue to strain bilateral ties. The former prime minister was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity linked to deaths during her administration\u2019s crackdown on protests, although she has rejected the conviction as a \u201cpolitical witch hunt.\u201dFor his part, Tarique Rahman, since becoming prime minister in February, has visited several Asian countries, including China, but is yet to visit India. That he is yet to visit India despite invitations from New Delhi reflects the continuing sensitivity in bilateral ties.However, New Delhi has repeatedly signalled its interest in hosting him. Could Bangladesh\u2019s signalling on the Mecca Pact, therefore, be a message to India that Dhaka is keeping its options open?Professor Datta sees Dhaka\u2019s approach as a way of telling major powers, including India, that Bangladesh has other options, so that it need not depend on any one external power.\u201cThey’re telling everybody, including India, that we have other options… It’s more of a both domestic and external messaging that ‘We (Bangladesh) have other options so that we don’t have to depend on one particular external power’,\u201d she said.Additionally, Bangladesh knows that if it joins the alliance, two of its three partners would be countries whose ties with India have faced significant strains \u2014 Pakistan and T\u00fcrkiye.In fact, Bangladesh-Pakistan ties had already improved significantly under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration in Dhaka, well before the Mecca pact emerged. The rapprochement included reciprocal security visits, raising eyebrows in New Delhi.For Bangladesh, therefore, simply signalling interest in the agreement could send a message to India that it is considering other strategic options while the relationship remains strained.<\/p>\n For Dhaka, a formal membership would mean taking on the commitments that come with a collective-defence arrangement. That would mark a significant shift for a country that has traditionally been reluctant to enter formal military alliances.But Professor Datta does not expect Bangladesh to become a direct member of the alliance, at least for now. Some form of association, she believes, could be more plausible.\u201cI don’t think, at this point, Bangladesh is going to join the alliance as a direct member. In some form of association, maybe an observer status, but they will certainly have other considerations.\u201dOne of those \u201cconsiderations,\u201d she says, is likely to be domestic opinion towards Pakistan. While official engagement between Dhaka and Islamabad has grown, a formal defence alliance could be politically difficult to sell at home as it may not go down well with the public, given the history between the two nations.For now, therefore, it remains to be seen whether Dhaka will restrict itself to signalling interest or go beyond it and pursue some form of formal association with the alliance.<\/div>\n Bangladesh has been signalling it may joint the Mecca pact In August, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and T\u00fcrkiye unveiled what has informally been dubbed the \u201cIslamic Nato\u201d. Named after Makkah, Islam\u2019s holiest city, the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement or simply the Mecca pact\u2014is based on the principle that an armed attack on one member would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Bangladesh has been signalling it may joint the Mecca pact In August, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and T\u00fcrkiye unveiled what has informally been dubbed the \u201cIslamic Nato\u201d. Named after Makkah, Islam\u2019s holiest city, the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement or simply the Mecca pact\u2014is based on the principle that an armed attack on one member would be […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":1,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":7,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg",400,225,false],"medium":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg",300,169,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bangladesh-has-been-signalling-it-may-joint-the-mecca-pact.jpg",150,84,false]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/author\/admin"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"What](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/imgsize-672976,msid-133706816\/what-is-mecca-joint-defence-agreement.jpg\" "\\"What")
<\/p>\n![\"What](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/imgsize-1071565,msid-133706881\/what-saudi-arabia-pakistan-and-turkiye-bring-to-the-table.jpg\" "\\"What")
<\/p>\nThe ‘Muslim family’ argument<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A calculation for domestic politics?<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The India factor in Bangladesh’s calculus<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
What would Bangladesh\u2019s Mecca Pact membership mean<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"