On Friday, August 7th, 2026, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed a joint defense deal stipulating that an armed attack on any one of the three nations will be regarded as an attack against all of them.

This agreement follows a 2025 pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons, which had already announced a joint defense deal.

The signing comes amid heightened regional tensions, including a recent attack by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis late on Thursday, August 6th, which wounded 11 civilians near the Saudi-Yemeni border. The injured included seven Saudis, two Egyptians, a Yemeni, and a Pakistani, according to General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen's government against the Shiite Houthi rebels.

In related defense industry news, Rheinmetall, Europe's largest ammunition maker, signed a memorandum of understanding last month with US arms maker Lockheed Martin to jointly produce Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) at Rheinmetall's Unterluess plant in northern Germany. Production facilities are scheduled to be set up next year. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger noted that while the joint venture still requires approval, the process is well advanced and has US government backing. He also highlighted the challenges in ramping up missile production to replenish stockpiles depleted during the five-month conflict with Iran, initiated under President Donald Trump's administration.

BDI analysts commented that global growth would have been between 3.3% and 3.4% if not for the war, but warned that economic outlooks could worsen significantly if the US and Iran fail to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.

The price for benchmark Brent crude oil reflected the regional instability, rising almost 4% on Thursday before dropping slightly to $83.26 per barrel on Friday morning, down from $113 earlier in the conflict but still significantly higher than the $72 per barrel price prior to it.

Notable remarks include calls for policy reforms to reduce reliance on external security guarantees and skepticism about the effectiveness of the new defense agreement, with some stating, "Saudis must know that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as years of one-sided nursing to the Americans did not bring them security."

Sources