Pakistan appoints retired general as first secretary-general of Mecca defense pact

Pakistan has appointed retired Lt. Gen. Nauman Mahmood as the first secretary-general of the Mecca defense pact, a trilateral agreement between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Mahmood will head the alliance’s General Secretariat in Riyadh, according to the ministry’s statement.

Mahmood’s military career

Mahmood led Pakistan’s National Defence University in Islamabad from November 2021 to April 2023. He was commissioned into the Pakistan Army in 1987 and retired in 2023.

Terms of the defense agreement

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement in August.

The agreement seeks to promote security, peace, stability and prosperity while strengthening collective deterrence. It stipulates that an attack on any one of the signatory states will be considered an attack on all parties.