Pakistan, Oct. 22 -- Pakistan, Qatar, Turkiye and Indonesia signed the Badr defence cooperation agreement in Doha on Wednesday, paving the way for joint military production, technology transfer and research. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif represented Pakistan at the signing, which came barely a day after Turkiye submitted the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to its parliament for ratification. Ankara is also preparing legislation to allow the deployment of military personnel to Saudi Arabia under that pact. The back-to-back developments suggest that Pakistan's expanding defence diplomacy is steadily acquiring an industrial dimension, even as the Middle East grapples with a worsening security crisis.

The two ag...