Turkish troops have been stationed in Qatar for years, and the two governments have long described each other as strategic partners. On Friday they put a formal security pledge behind those words, when Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim, put their signatures to a mutual defence agreement in Istanbul.
The ceremony at the Dolmabahçe presidential office capped the twelfth session of the countries’ Supreme Strategic Committee, a body created under a 2014 accord. Ministers signed four further texts the same day, on consumer protection and market inspection, on schooling, and on peace mediation and conflict resolution, an area where Ankara and Doha have both built reputations as go-betweens.
The detail of the pact remains thin. Doha’s published summary of the talks promises that the partners will stand together if outside forces attack one of them, or both. The partners will consult on threats and defence policy, hold more joint exercises, deepen arms-industry links and swap personnel for training. What would actually trigger a joint response, and what form it would take, is not spelled out, and neither government has released the full treaty.
Context explains the timing. The Gulf is still absorbing the shock of the war the United States and Israel waged on Iran, and shipping in the Hormuz strait remains badly disrupted. The two governments called for safe passage to be restored quickly and said the conflict should be settled through diplomacy. Speaking to Al Jazeera, an academic at Qatar University said the aim is deterrence, raising the price of any aggression, rather than an alliance aimed at a particular state.
Money is part of the bond too. According to the communiqué, Turkish building firms have delivered 206 projects in the emirate, together worth some $20.8bn, and both sides want bilateral trade to reach $5bn, with closer cooperation on liquefied natural gas. The new arrangement sits alongside the separate defence deal Turkey concluded this year with Riyadh and Islamabad.
