DOHA, Qatar — Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar and Indonesia signed a defence cooperation agreement in Doha on Wednesday, a memorandum of understanding on defence-industry cooperation that the four governments say will support joint production, military training and exercises, and research and development.
The agreement, known as the Badr Memorandum of Understanding, was announced by Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defence. In a statement, the ministry said the accord signed in Doha “would also support military exercises and training, cooperation on research and development, and contribute to joint efforts to improve the countries’ respective defence industries,” Reuters reported.
It was signed by Türkiye’s Minister of National Defence, Yaşar Güler; Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani; Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif; and Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Defence, Yusuf Jauhari. Haluk Görgün, who heads Türkiye’s Presidency of Defence Industries (SSB), was also at the signing.
What the agreement covers
Announcing the memorandum a day before the signing, the SSB said it would deepen cooperation in joint production, technology transfer, interoperability and supply-chain integration — “moving beyond the supply of military platforms,” according to Anadolu Agency. The framework brings the four countries’ existing bilateral defence-industry partnerships together in a single multilateral arrangement.
The Turkish defence ministry said the memorandum was named “Bedir” — Arabic and Turkish for “full moon” — because, through it, the four countries complement one another, according to Turkish media reports of the ministry’s statement.
The framework builds on programmes already under way between the partners, Anadolu reported: PN MILGEM Babur-class corvettes being built for Pakistan’s navy in Istanbul and Karachi; the KAPLAN MT medium tank co-developed with Indonesia; and Bayraktar drones and the BARQ joint venture between Aselsan and Qatar’s Barzan Holdings.
Not a mutual-defence pact
The Badr memorandum is a cooperation framework for the defence industry. It contains no collective-defence clause committing the four countries to come to one another’s aid in a war, according to Turkish defence reporting on the ministry’s announcement, and its text has not been published. No specific projects, funding or implementation timetable were announced on Wednesday.
That distinguishes it from the region’s actual mutual-defence instrument, the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement signed in August by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan, which treats an armed attack on one member as an attack on all. Qatar welcomed that agreement but did not join it, and Indonesia is not a party to it. The two tracks were both moving this week: Ankara has sent the Makkah agreement to parliament for ratification, and Reuters reported that Türkiye plans to seek a parliamentary mandate to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under it — a step that belongs to the Makkah framework, not to the Badr memorandum.
Responses so far
Speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha on Monday, Qatar’s Sheikh Saoud said Qatar would soon announce plans to establish a local defence production hub, partnering with regional and Western partners, Reuters reported.
As of Wednesday morning, Pakistan, Qatar and Indonesia had not issued their own signing-day statements about the memorandum; Pakistan’s participation is confirmed by the Turkish ministry’s announcement and Asif’s signature. Pakistan’s defence industry has the most established production relationship of the three partners with Türkiye through the MILGEM programme, and the framework formally links it with Qatari investment and Indonesia’s defence sector.
What happens next
What the memorandum produces in practice will depend on the projects the four countries now launch under it — none has been named yet. Statements from Islamabad, Doha and Jakarta, expected to set out each government’s own reading of the framework, had not appeared by Wednesday morning and will be added to this report when they are issued.
Sources: Reuters; Anadolu Agency; Türkiye Ministry of National Defence statement, as reported by Turkish media.
