Islamic NATO, Dhaka

Talks about an Islamic NATO are in the air. This, however, is a natural follow-up on the August 7 summit in Mecca involving Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan where a joint defence agreement was signed. Styled as the Mecca Pact, it pledged to “strengthen collective security, deepen cooperation and promote peace and stability,” in the geopolitical region. The message it sent out was that an attack on any one country would be treated as an attack on all its member-nations and responded to accordingly. With heads of government, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, personally present to ink the pact, this naturally sent out strong…