India concerned over Bangladesh's possible accession to the "Mecca Pact"

India is expressing serious concern over the prospect of Bangladesh joining the "Mecca Joint Defence Agreement," whose participants already include Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

New Delhi fears that this step could substantially alter the strategic landscape in South Asia, CNN reports.

According to Indian analysts, it is Islamabad that is most actively facilitating Dhaka's integration into the pact. Should Bangladesh join the alliance, Pakistan could potentially and hypothetically create the threat of "two fronts" for India in a future conflict, as well as use Bangladeshi territory under the agreement's collective security articles. At present, New Delhi is making maximum diplomatic efforts to prevent the alliance from expanding to its eastern borders.

The Mecca agreement itself was signed on August 7 in Saudi Arabia. The document includes a mutual defense clause: an armed attack on one of the participants is regarded as an attack on the entire alliance. Although Pakistan and Turkey emphasize the exclusively defensive nature of the union, the absence of a specifically named adversary in the text of the treaty raises questions on the Indian side.

Officially, Bangladesh has not yet signed the document, but Dhaka is publicly signaling its interest. Bangladesh's foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kabir stated that the country would consider the advisability of joining the bloc based exclusively on its own national interests. For India, a neighboring country's possible involvement in a defense structure that includes Pakistan and Turkey creates new long-term challenges in the field of regional security.