Pakistan, Oct. 3 -- Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar's announcement that the Strategic Political Defence Committee will meet urgently in Riyadh next week has moved the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement from declaratory commitment towards its first real test.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed the agreement on August 7, pledging to regard an armed attack on one as an attack on all. Less than two months later, Saudi Arabia is confronting renewed missile and drone attacks while fighting inside Yemen has intensified. The committee created to give political direction to the pact must now decide what that commitment means when the threat is no longer hypothetical.

Military coordination is already under way. The Pakistani, Saudi and Turkish...