Russia welcomes Turkiye’s reported desire to join BRICS

Russia welcomes Turkiye’s reported desire to become part of the BRICS group of nations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Peskov added that the subject would be on the agenda of the organisation’s next summit, Reuters has reported.

The spokesman noted that there was heightened interest in BRICS — an “emerging-market cooperative mechanism” formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and now joined by Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — from various states, but said that it was unlikely that the grouping could completely satisfy all interested nations.

On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan began a visit to Beijing, the highest-level visit by a Turkish official to BRICS member China since 2012. Fidan held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and other officials during the visit.

Asked during a talk at the Centre for China and Globalisation on Monday whether Turkiye would want to join BRICS, Fidan replied, “We would like to of course, why would we not?” However, he did not elaborate further.

Fidan was cited by Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu news agency as saying that Ankara was also eyeing cooperation with BRICS members and that he would attend a planned meeting of the group next week in Russia.

It was not immediately clear whether the Turkish government would take steps to join BRICS, as it has not previously stated its desire to join formally.

NATO member Turkiye has come under fire from its Western allies in recent years over its ties with Russia. Some claim that its “axis” is shifting away from the Western military alliance. Ankara has rejected this, saying that it remained a committed member of the alliance and maintained its goal of full membership of the European Union.

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