Mecca pact, SCO, NATO: Türkiye’s multilateral foreign policy

Türkiye’s foreign policy is taking shape across several overlapping arenas: NATO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the security arrangement created by the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. The article presents these relationships not as competing choices, but as elements of a broader strategy built around multiple partnerships.

The Mecca agreement has established what the article describes as an important security axis linking Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. If additional states join, that axis could develop into a significant center of power and security. At the same time, Türkiye’s participation in the SCO as an observer, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s suggestion that Ankara could consider full membership, signal an effort to deepen relations with the organization.

The article says Erdoğan has made clear that a Shanghai perspective would not require Türkiye to turn its back on the West. These initiatives may appear to involve different geographic spheres, but it presents them as part of one strategic understanding. Türkiye, in this account, is not seeking to move from one bloc to another. It is trying to engage several centers of power at once and increase its influence through those relationships.

The approach extends beyond the three areas highlighted at the SCO summit. The Organization of Turkic States provides cooperation and influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus, while other networks reach into Africa and the Balkans. The Syrian civil war also changed Türkiye’s alliance relationships, reinforcing the argument that traditional partnerships may not always provide sufficient security.

The article points to the withdrawal of NATO-linked Patriot systems while Türkiye faced a missile threat as one reason Ankara explored other forms of protection, eventually acquiring the S-400 high-altitude air defense system. Although Türkiye initially sought to develop dialogue with the United States, the West and Russia, the article says Ankara again strengthened its alliance with NATO and the United States during Donald Trump’s second term. NATO membership remains one of the strongest pillars of the strategy.

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