India, Aug. 8 -- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif put their signatures to a joint defence agreement at Al-Safa Palace in Mecca on Friday, after offering prayers together. The document has a name - the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement - and a headline commitment. An armed attack against any one of the three states will be regarded as an attack against them all, it said.

The joint statement, released via the Saudi Press Agency and Pakistan's foreign ministry, also promises to enhance "all aspects of defence cooperation" - a phrase the signatories have since spent the day trying to define, and to bound.

The three countries on Friday released a joint statem...