Turkish Overseas Preacher Hakan Fidan participates within the BRICS+ session on a two-day BRICS worldwide preachers prime saved in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.
Sefa Karacan|Anadolu|Getty Pictures
Turkey’s demand to enroll with the BRICS partnership is a relocation considered as each calculated and symbolic because the Eurasian nation of 85 million makes boosting strides in its impression and make the most of on the worldwide part.
” Our head of state has really at present revealed a number of occasions that we need to finish up being a participant of BRICS,” a speaker for Turkey’s main AK Celebration knowledgeable reporters beforehand in September. “Our demand on this subject is obvious, and the process is constant inside this construction.”
BRICS, which implies Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of arising market nations that search for to strengthen their monetary connections. This yr, it acquired 4 brand-new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE.Â
It is moreover considered as a weight to Western-led corporations just like the EU, the G7 and in addition NATO, though it doesn’t have official framework, enforcement units, and constant tips and requirements.Â
For Turkey, a very long time Western ally and NATO participant as a result of 1952, the relocate to enroll with BRICS is “in line with its extra complete geopolitical journey: putting itself as an impartial star in a multi-polar globe and in addition ending up being a put up of energy in its very personal proper,” George Dyson, an aged skilled at Management Risks, knowledgeable CNBC.
” This isn’t to state that Turkey is averting from the West fully,” Dyson included, “nevertheless Turkey needs to domesticate as a number of buying and selling connections as possible and go after possibilities unilaterally with out being constricted by Western positioning. It’s completely symbolic as a result of Turkey is exhibiting exactly this â $” that it isn’t constricted by its wonderful connections with the West.”
Diversifying alliances
Regardless of years of being lined up with Europe and the United State, Turkey has really handled fixed denial from signing up with the EU, which has really lengthy been an aching space for Ankara.
Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a earlier White House and Elder State Division official presently primarily based in Istanbul, acknowledged that Turkish Head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his federal authorities “seem like impressed primarily by 2 parts:  A vital observe of defending nationwide charge of pursuits … and a have to scare the West a bit bit, each out of psychological spite and as a figuring out methodology to essence giving ins.”
CNBC has really referred to as the Turkish presidency’s office for comment.
Turkey has within the final couple of years expanded its role in global diplomacy, brokering prisoner swap deals and leading other negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, for instance, while also mending previously strained relations with regional powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most recently, Egypt.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their joint press conference on September 4, 2023, in Sochi, Russia.
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Ankara also refuses to partake in sanctions against Russia â a stance that irks its Western allies but helps it maintain an independent position as a so-called “middle power,” which it sees as beneficial to its relationships with China and the Global South.
To that end, “any new BRICS member is obviously eager to take advantage of stronger ‘togetherness’ of emerging economies in order to reduce dependency on developed economies, mainly the United States,” said Arda Tunca, an independent economist and consultant based in Turkey.
Standing up to the West?
Tunca noted, however, that Turkey’s unique position in the world is a “delicate discussion point” as the country has “serious political problems with the EU and the United States” despite its western alliances.
Turkey’s governing party, which has run the country for 22 years, is “ideologically closer to the East than the West,” Tunca said. “Turkey wanted to hop on the BRICS train before it was late. It is too early to mention that the BRICS can become an alternative to the West, but the intention is clearly to stand up against the West under the leadership of China.”
Importantly, being part of BRICS allows its members to trade in currencies other than dollars. This aims to reduce dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a more multi-polar world. The fact that it’s led by China makes some in the West wary, who see this as a potential win for Beijing.Â
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen) is welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the 11th G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.
Mehmet Ali Ozcan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
“I don’t think there is any enforcement of their [BRICS’] decisions, it’s more of a geopolitical thing, sort of a symbolic counter to the G7,” Dyson said. He also noted: “It’s interesting that Iran and UAE are both in it. It’s a bit like the anti-West team.”Â
Erdogan has spoken of his desire to join BRICS since at least 2018, but the issue was never formalized. In June, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited both China and Russia, the latter for a BRICS+ summit, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin said he “welcomed” Turkey’s interest in joining the bloc.
At the time, the then-U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, said in an interview that he hoped Turkey wouldn’t join the group, nevertheless included that he didn’t imagine it will adversely have an effect on Turkey’s positioning with the West.
