Doubts grow over Turkey’s Brics application

• Bloomberg reports application made
• Spokesman will not confirm
• Erdoğan to attend Brics summit

A report that Turkey has formally applied to join the non-Western aligned Brics bloc is looking premature, with a Turkish government spokesman refusing to confirm the claim.

Bloomberg reported that Turkey had submitted its application to join the bloc that consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, plus more recent members, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Ethiopia and Egypt, citing sources “familiar with the matter”.

However, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, Ömer Çelik, appeared to cast doubt on whether a formal membership application had been lodged. 

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Speaking at a media briefing in Ankara on Tuesday, Çelik said Turkey was seeking membership of Brics and had taken a step in that process, but did not confirm whether the government had formally applied to join.

“If there is a concrete development – a decision or an evaluation by Brics on membership – we will share that with you,” he said. 

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Turkey has long said it was interested in joining the non-aligned group, with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saying that Ankara was seeking a more balanced position between East and West. 

There are two separate dynamics driving Turkey’s Brics membership plans, according to Sinan Ülgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies. 

“The first is Turkey’s aspiration to enhance its strategic autonomy in foreign policy which essentially involves improving ties with non-Western powers like Russia and China in a way to balance the relationship with the West,” he told AGBI.

“The second is the accumulated frustrations over the relationship with the West. For example, the EU has not even been able to decide on the start of negotiations on the updating of the custom union, its trade deal with Turkey that dates back to 1996.”

While Turkey may be looking to Brics and other groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to balance its ties with the West, those ties cannot be easily loosened, Ülgen said.

“The reality is that Turkey has a very deep entanglement with the institutions of the West, whether it is on the security side with Nato, on the economic side with the EU, or the rule of law with the Council of Europe.

“Joining Brics is going to be a vastly difficult diplomatic initiative to manage.”

President Erdoğan plans to attend the next Brics summit, in the Russian city of Kazan.

Russian media, quoting Vladimir Putin advisor Yuri Ushakov, reported on Wednesday that Erdoğan had accepted an invitation to take part in the meeting, to be held October 22 to 24.