Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan attends the BRICS+ session on a two-day BRICS overseas ministers summit held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu | Getty Photos
Turkey’s request to hitch the BRICS alliance is a transfer seen as each strategic and symbolic because the Eurasian nation of 85 million makes rising strides in its affect and leverage on the worldwide stage.
“Our president has already expressed multiple times that we wish to become a member of BRICS,” a spokesperson for Turkey’s main AK Social gathering advised journalists earlier in September. “Our request in this matter is clear, and the process is proceeding within this framework.”
BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a gaggle of rising market nations that search to deepen their financial ties. This 12 months, it gained 4 new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE.
It is also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations just like the EU, the G7 and even NATO, though it lacks formal construction, enforcement mechanisms, and uniform guidelines and requirements.
For Turkey, a longtime Western ally and NATO member since 1952, the transfer to hitch BRICS is “in line with its broader geopolitical journey: positioning itself as an independent actor in a multi-polar world and even becoming a pole of power in its own right,” George Dyson, a senior analyst at Management Dangers, advised CNBC.
“This is not to say that Turkey is turning away from the West entirely,” Dyson added, “but Turkey wants to foster as many trading ties as possible and pursue opportunities unilaterally without being constrained by Western alignment. It is definitely symbolic in that Turkey is demonstrating exactly this — that it is not constrained by its good ties with the West.”
Diversifying alliances
Regardless of many years of being aligned with Europe and the U.S., Turkey has confronted constant rejection from becoming a member of the EU, which has lengthy been a sore spot for Ankara.
Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a former White Home and Senior State Division official presently primarily based in Istanbul, stated that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his authorities “seem to be motivated mostly by two factors: A strategic tradition of securing national interests… and a desire to spook the West a bit, both out of emotional spite and as a negotiating tactic to extract concessions.”
CNBC has contacted the Turkish presidency’s workplace for remark.
Turkey has in the previous couple of years expanded its function in international diplomacy, brokering prisoner swap offers and main different negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as an example, whereas additionally mending beforehand strained relations with regional powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most lately, Egypt.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes arms with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan throughout their joint press convention on September 4, 2023, in Sochi, Russia.
Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
Ankara additionally refuses to partake in sanctions in opposition to Russia — a stance that irks its Western allies however helps it preserve an unbiased place as a so-called “middle power,” which it sees as useful to its relationships with China and the World South.
To that finish, “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,” stated Arda Tunca, an unbiased economist and marketing consultant primarily based in Turkey.
Standing as much as the West?
Tunca famous, nevertheless, that Turkey’s distinctive place on the planet is a “delicate discussion point” because the nation has “serious political problems with the EU and the United States” regardless of its western alliances.
Turkey’s governing celebration, which has run the nation for 22 years, is “ideologically closer to the East than the West,” Tunca stated. “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 a part of BRICS permits its members to commerce in currencies aside from {dollars}. This goals to scale back dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a extra multi-polar world. The truth that it is led by China makes some within the West cautious, who see this as a possible win for Beijing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen) is welcomed by Chinese language President Xi Jinping as a part of the eleventh G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.
Mehmet Ali Ozcan | Anadolu Company | Getty Photos
“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 stated. He additionally famous: “It’s interesting that Iran and UAE are both in it. It’s a bit like the anti-West team.”
Erdogan has spoken of his need to hitch BRICS since at the very least 2018, however the difficulty was by no means formalized. In June, Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan visited each China and Russia, the latter for a BRICS+ summit, throughout which Russian President Vladimir Putin stated he “welcomed” Turkey’s curiosity in becoming a member of the bloc.
On the time, the then-U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, stated in an interview that he hoped Turkey would not be a part of the group, however added that he didn’t assume it might negatively impression Turkey’s alignment with the West.