MUSLIM NATO? ☪️ -- Türkiye may soon formalize a trilateral agreement with 🇵🇰 & 🇸🇦 to join the duo's collective #security treaty, officially called the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), signed on September 17, 2025. The agreement stipulates that "any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both".
There is already a trilateral #defense collaboration in force among Ankara, #Riyadh & #Islamabad, which focuses on joint research and development, technology transfer, co-production, and achieving self-sufficiency in defense industries. This framework has held multiple meetings (e.g., in Riyadh in 2023, Rawalpindi in 2024, and Istanbul later), but it does not explicitly include a mutual defense commitment yet.
If Türkiye indeed ends up joining Pakistan & Saudi Arabia in the SMDA, most geopolitical analysts agree it could become the backbone of a so-called "Muslim #NATO" after slowly growing with further memberships and amendments to its founding documents; certainly a nightmare scenario for an expansionist Israel.
A complicating factor could be Türkiye's existing membership in NATO as its 2nd largest army, housing several NATO facilities including its "Land Command" located in #Izmir. However, there is no structure in NATO that forbids members from forming separate alliances as they see fit. There are many examples of this: US, the leading NATO member, has bilateral security agreements with non-NATO member Japan, Korea, Philippines, Australia/New Zealand and the "Rio treaty" covering many Latin American countries. France has defense agreements with several African nations (e.g., former colonies like Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon), including military assistance and intervention clauses, though not always full "attack on one is attack on all." UK's Five Power Defence Arrangements (1971) with Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore involve consultations and defense cooperation in Southeast Asia. And finally Türkiye itself has an "Agreement on Strategic Partnership and Mutual Support" with fellow Turkic #Azerbaijan, signed in 2010.
Israel's attacks on its neighbors, ICC investigated war crimes in places like Gaza and US' increasing reluctance to get involved in Middle Eastern affairs can catalyze the formation of a "Muslim NATO". But it seems that things hinge on Riyadh, as the Crown Prince is known to have a complicated relationship with the US that requires a delicate approach. Saudi Arabia probably doesn't want to end its military-security relationship with the US amid ongoing rivalries with Iran, and new ones like the UAE. Fully replacing the US with as-of-yet "unproven" Muslim allies like Pakistan & Türkiye isn't yet a bet Riyadh is willing to place. But the recent Israeli attack on neighboring Qatar, which happens to have the largest US military base in the region, may have begun to change the Saudis' betting strategies.
🇮🇩 Oh no! A massive flash flood in Malalak, West Sumatra in Indonesia today.
Malalak has already suffered enough.
It's relentless 🥺
Latest casualty update from across Sumatra:
Deaths: 921 people
Missing: 392 people
Injured: 5,000 people
Seandainya pemerintah serius menanggapi peringatan Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG), dampak banjir di tiga provinsi di Sumatera—termasuk jumlah korban—mungkin tidak sebesar ini.
#Tempodotco#TempoPlus
Cyclone-triggered floods and landslides across three provinces in Sumatra, have caused significant casualties.
Official data: toll just reached 908 dead, 410 missing.
📍Kampung Toweren, Lut Tawar Sub-district, Aceh Province, Indonesia.
🚨 Don't look away! 🚨
Utter devastation in Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia.
At least 836 dead, 509 missing, thousands displaced, millions affected across 51 districts and the animals, no figures available.