ANKARA/ISLAMABAD: Field Marshal and Chief of Defence Forces Syed Asim Munir has arrived in Turkiye on an official visit, in a trip the military says is aimed at further strengthening defence and strategic cooperation between the two countries.
According to the Inter Services Public Relations, the visit is being regarded as significant in the context of deepening defence and strategic collaboration between Pakistan and Turkiye.
A spokesperson for the Pakistan Army said important meetings with Turkiye’s political and military leadership are expected during the visit, in which matters of mutual interest, the regional security situation and defence cooperation will be discussed.
Pakistan and Turkiye maintain historic, fraternal and strategic relations alongside close cooperation in the defence sector. In a recent development, high-level contacts are also under way among Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia to advance defence cooperation further.
Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia are united for joint security and collective defence.
Extending congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the government and the people of Turkiye on Victory Day, the prime minister said 30 August recalls the historic victory achieved under the leadership of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and that Pakistan pays tribute to the Turkish people’s proud legacy of courage and national resolve.
Relations between Pakistan and Turkiye, he said, are relations of hearts, strengthened over centuries by shared faith, history and struggle.
The Makkah Mukarramah joint defence agreement, the prime minister said, is an expression of the Pakistan–Turkiye strategic partnership. Pakistan remains committed to further strengthening its strategic partnership with Turkiye, he added, and the partnership will be deepened across all sectors.
Shehbaz Sharif said the shared prosperity and security of Pakistan and Turkiye is a commitment, and expressed the hope that the bond of Pakistan–Turkiye friendship and brotherhood will grow stronger from generation to generation.
Zafer Bayramı, observed annually on 30 August, commemorates the decisive Turkish victory at the Battle of Dumlupınar in 1922, which effectively concluded the Turkish War of Independence and led to the founding of the Republic the following year. It is one of Türkiye’s principal national days and is marked by military ceremonies in Ankara.
For Pakistan, the date carries additional resonance because of the Khilafat Movement, in which Muslims of the subcontinent raised funds and campaigned in support of the Ottoman cause — a history both governments routinely invoke, and which underpins the “relations of hearts” formulation used by successive Pakistani prime ministers.
The substantive content of this relationship is industrial rather than ceremonial. Turkiye’s defence sector has become one of Pakistan’s principal partners outside China, and the collaboration runs in both directions: Turkish yards have upgraded Pakistan Navy platforms, Pakistan has taken delivery of Turkish-built corvettes, and joint work on trainer aircraft, drones and naval systems has expanded steadily over the past decade.
The trilateral framing with Saudi Arabia is the newer element and the one worth watching. A defence architecture linking Islamabad, Ankara and Riyadh would be consequential for regional balance, but the operative question is what it actually commits its members to. Consultation mechanisms, joint exercises and procurement alignment are one category of arrangement; mutual defence obligations are quite another, with implications for Pakistan’s relations with Iran, India and the Gulf states not party to it.
Neither government has published the text of the arrangement referred to. Until that happens, readers should treat the trilateral as a statement of political alignment and defence-industrial intent rather than a treaty commitment.
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