Key takeaways
- Turkey will host the first joint meeting of the R4 and E3 foreign ministers in Istanbul on October 23.
- The agenda covers Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb shipping, Saudi air defence, Iran-US tensions, Israeli actions and the Black Sea.
- The R4 formed in March 2026, and its Mecca defence pact is awaiting ratification in the Turkish parliament.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will host the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday, October 23, Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed on Thursday. It will be the first joint meeting of the R4 (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt) and the E3 (Britain, France and Germany), convened at Turkey's initiative.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud is due to attend for Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Ishaq Dar for Pakistan and Badr Abdelatty for Egypt. The E3 side will be represented by Ed Miliband for Britain, Jean-Noël Barrot for France and Johann David Wadephul for Germany. The meeting overlaps with the 9th Istanbul Mediation Conference, which opens with video remarks from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Two groups with different origins
The R4 is the younger format. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt formed it in March 2026 and held their first foreign ministers' meeting in Riyadh on March 18. Six consultative meetings have followed, including one at the UN General Assembly in New York. The group is built on what Ankara calls "regional ownership": the idea that regional powers should steer regional security.
The E3 dates to 2003, when it took up diplomacy over Iran's nuclear programme. Today it faces armed escalation that threatens European energy and shipping routes.
Behind the R4 sits the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. Erdoğan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed it on August 7. Article 2 treats an armed attack from outside on one member as an attack on all, and the pact bars withdrawal until 10 years after it enters into force, with three months' written notice required after that. The Turkish parliament received the ratification bill on October 20 and 21. Fidan was in Brussels the same days, meeting EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Belgian counterparts.
Observers are reading: how the agenda for the Istanbul talks, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement fit together, and where the limits of Turkey's hinge role lie.
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What Istanbul can deliver
The meeting's first test is whether it produces anything beyond a statement. Seven ministers can agree on language about navigation and de-escalation. Turning that into coordinated action on shipping, air defence or Iran talks is harder. Those decisions rest with capitals, navies and, in the case of the Gulf, with the United States and Iran, neither of which will be in the room.
Several signals will show how far the format goes. One is whether the ministers announce a follow-up meeting. Another is whether Turkey's parliament ratifies the Mecca pact. A third is whether the E3 ministers publicly back the regional-ownership principle. Anadolu Agency published the expected topics ahead of the talks, including Palestine, Hormuz, Yemen and the Russia-Ukraine war. For Ankara, the summit has value mainly as a channel between two groups that have not met before. Friday will show whether that channel carries any weight.
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