Bangladesh will positively consider joining the Mecca Pact if the existing members express their desire to induct Dhaka into the arrangement, Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman told Parliament on Thursday.
Replying to a question from independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana on what Bangladesh could gain by joining the pact signed on 7 August among Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan, Khalilur said the issue of membership had not yet arisen.
“The pact has been signed among three countries, and we view it positively. The question of joining the pact is yet to arise, as it depends on the willingness of the existing members to include Bangladesh,” he said.
“If they express their desire to induct Bangladesh into the pact, we will certainly consider it positively,” the foreign minister told Parliament.
He said it was too early to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of joining the pact, adding that Bangladesh would examine the matter when the time came.
Khalilur said that if the pact expanded, it would serve as a collective self-defence arrangement for the Muslim world, describing it as an internal matter of the Muslim Ummah and saying there was no reason for others to be concerned about it.
