Middle East & North Africa
Turkey and Qatar sign a mutual defence agreement – Erdoğan: “One more dimension to our ties”
Erdoğan and the Emir of Qatar signed a mutual defence agreement in Istanbul on November 13, the last of five accords at the 12th High Strategic Committee meeting. It follows Turkey’s ratification of the Mecca Agreement.
Turkey and Qatar signed a mutual defence agreement (Karşılıklı Savunma Anlaşması) on Friday, November 13 in Istanbul. It was signed by the leaders themselves, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the Turkish presidency’s office in Dolmabahçe Palace. It was the last of five agreements signed within the 12th meeting of the two countries’ High Strategic Committee (Yüksek Stratejik Komite).
Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate reported that Erdoğan told the meeting the agreement “will add one more dimension to our fraternal ties” and that the two countries’ cooperation in the defence industry will continue to strengthen. The Turkish president added that Ankara and Doha will work together so that war does not flare up again in the Persian Gulf region, and that it is important to persuade the parties involved to resolve their differences through diplomacy. Israeli attacks in Gaza, normalisation in Syria and the situation in Libya were also discussed.
The Emir called the agreement a “strategic partnership” and wrote on X that the two leaders discussed the priorities of their joint action for the next period. Middle East Eye writes that the new agreement obliges each country to rush to the other’s aid if attacked.
The other four agreements
The two countries’ foreign ministers, Hakan Fidan and Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, signed a memorandum of cooperation on peace, reconciliation and conflict resolution, as well as the joint communiqué of the meeting. Also signed were a memorandum on consumer protection and market supervision and an education cooperation agreement.
A new link in Ankara’s network of defence agreements
Turkey keeps troops in Qatar and has signed several defence agreements with Doha since 2017. Turkish security analyst Yusuf Alabarda told Al Jazeera that after the war with Iran the Gulf states understood that American security guarantees “are not working properly.” According to him, in the near future Turkish weapons and air-defence systems could be deployed in Qatar.
The agreement with Qatar comes a few days after the Turkish parliament ratified the Mecca Agreement for common defence with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, signed in August (see also our report on the Mecca pact). In October, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey signed in Doha a multilateral defence cooperation memorandum called “Badr.” Qatar also acts as a mediator in US-Iran contacts, and the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency (MIT), Ibrahim Kalin, had announced a Vance-Rezaei meeting in Qatar, which Tehran denied.
