Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof. Ahsan Iqbal have said that the Makkah Accord between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye represents an important step towards collective deterrence and regional stability, while its long-term significance would depend on translating strategic cooperation into economic strength, technological capability and human development.
Addressing an international conference on “The Makkah Accord and the New Geometry of Power” at the University of Lahore, the Federal Minister said the world was undergoing a profound transformation, with the unipolar order that emerged after the Cold War receding and a new multipolar order still taking shape.
He said the emerging global environment was witnessing the rise of China as a major economic and technological power, continued strategic influence of Russia, the reassessment of Europe’s security architecture, growing economic and diplomatic agency of the Gulf states, Türkiye’s expanding role as an autonomous regional power and India’s ambition for a greater global role.
Against this backdrop, he said countries of the Global South were increasingly asserting their right to become authors of their own destiny rather than remaining merely the terrain on which great powers competed.
Referring to the agreement signed on August 7, 2026, in Makkah, Saudia Arabia by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Tayyip Erdo?an, Ahsan Iqbal said the central principle of the Makkah Accord was that an armed attack against one would be regarded as an attack against all.
He clarified that the Accord was not an alliance for aggression, was not directed against any country and did not seek to create a new sphere of confrontation. Rather, he said, it was an arrangement for collective deterrence aimed at promoting peace through strength, security through solidarity and stability through strategic cooperation.
“The philosophy behind the Makkah Accord is simple: when the cost of aggression becomes prohibitively high, the incentive for aggression becomes correspondingly low,” he said, adding that the arrangement was consistent with the right of individual and collective self-defense recognized under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
The Minister said the partnership between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye had a deeper strategic logic because the three countries possessed complementary national capabilities. Saudi Arabia brought economic resources, energy strength, financial capacity and growing technological ambition; Türkiye offered a sophisticated industrial and defence base, strategic geography and diplomatic reach; while Pakistan contributed significant defence capabilities, strategic geographical connectivity and a large pool of young human capital.
He said the real potential of the partnership lay not merely in the aggregation of military capabilities but in converting these complementary strengths into a wider architecture of security, technology, investment, connectivity and economic cooperation.
“This is where geopolitics must meet geo-economics,” he remarked.
Ahsan Iqbal emphasized that Pakistan’s strategic objective was strategic autonomy without strategic isolation, stressing that Pakistan valued its longstanding relationship with China, sought constructive relations with the United States and Europe, desired peaceful relations with neighboring countries and remained committed to partnerships across the Muslim world.
“Our strategic philosophy should therefore be: friendship with all, dependency on none; peace with all, vulnerability before none,” he said.
The Federal Minister stressed that military security alone could not make a nation powerful, noting that economic productivity, technological capability, human capital and social cohesion were the ultimate foundations of national security.
He said the Makkah Accord should therefore evolve beyond a defence arrangement and generate cooperation in areas including joint defence production, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, space technologies, energy and food security, critical minerals, research, investment and regional connectivity.
He said bringing together Pakistani human capital, Turkish technological and industrial capability and Saudi investment strength could transform the security partnership into a broader development partnership.
Turning to Pakistan’s national development priorities, Ahsan Iqbal said the country had demonstrated its resolve and unity whenever its sovereignty was challenged, but its next major national struggle would be the “Marka-e-Taraqqi” — the Battle for Development.
He said the future contest would increasingly be fought through exports, education,
productivity, technology, innovation and institutional reform rather than military power alone.
Under URAAN Pakistan, he said the government had set the ambition of building a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2035 and a three-trillion-dollar economy by 2047, with the 5Es framework focusing on Exports, E-Pakistan, Environment and Climate, Energy and Infrastructure, and Equity, Ethics and Empowerment.
The Minister said Pakistan’s ultimate national objective must be to increase its capability, as sovereignty in the twenty-first century would increasingly belong to nations capable of producing, innovating, educating their people and developing their own technologies.
Referring to Allama Iqbal’s philosophy of Khudi, he said national self- realization required the capacity to think, produce, innovate and make decisions independently.
“While missiles may deter an adversary, knowledge determines the destiny of nations. A fighter aircraft may defend your airspace; a university defends your future,” he said.
Addressing young people, Ahsan Iqbal urged universities to become laboratories of national transformation and called upon students, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs and social scientists to develop solutions to Pakistan’s most pressing challenges. He said the next generation would compete in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, robotics, advanced materials, renewable energy and space technology.
He stressed that social cohesion had itself become an element of national security in an age of misinformation and polarization, saying no external adversary could permanently weaken a nation that believed in itself, while no military could permanently protect a nation divided against itself.
Concluding, the Federal Minister said the Makkah Accord carried a responsibility for Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye to ensure that greater strategic capability produced greater responsibility rather than confrontation.
Quoting Allama Iqbal’s famous verse, he said the foundations of leadership were truth, justice and courage, to which the demands of the modern age added knowledge, unity and productivity.
He said if the Makkah Accord provided Pakistan with greater strategic security, the country must use that security wisely to build world-class universities, globally competitive industries, indigenous technologies and opportunities for its young people.
“Let Pakistan enter its centenary in 2047 not as a nation still discussing its potential, but as a nation that finally fulfilled it,” he said.
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