Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan flew on Wednesday to the city of Kazan in Russia’s semi-autonomous Republic of Tatarstan to attend the long-awaited BRICS summit on 22-24 October at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin – a summit at which Ankara is expected to reaffirm its desire to join the bloc of countries founded by China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Erdoğan will meet in Kazan with the leaders of India, China and South Africa barely a month after Turkey signalled its intention to join the BRICS, a possibility backed by Russia and coming after Ankara’s close ally Azerbaijan formally applied in late August to join the bloc, which accounts for almost half the world’s population (46%) and more than a third of the global economy (36%).
According to media sources, the agenda of the meeting between Erdoğan and Putin in the Russian city of Kazan will focus on the Russian president’s project to turn Turkey into a hub for the distribution of natural gas to Europe, as well as on increasing bilateral trade relations, which in 2023 exceeded $55 billion.
Turkey seeks good relations with the East and the West
Turkey’s entry into the BRICS would nonetheless be the first for a NATO member country, which has been viewed with suspicion by some of its allies in Europe, who see the BRICS as a kind of counterweight to the Western bloc. While the Turkish government has openly stated through its foreign minister Hakan Fidan that the obstacles imposed by the EU to Turkey’s accession have finally led it to seek BRICS membership, Ankara insists that it is only seeking to strengthen its ties with the East at a time when the global geopolitical centre of gravity is shifting away from Western countries and the world is moving towards a multipolar order; but it nevertheless assures that it will continue to maintain its ties and commitments to the West.
It is a fact that many of the BRICS members have difficult – if not opposite, as in the case of Russia – relations with the West, especially on key issues such as the conflict in the Middle East or the war in Ukraine; However, Turkey’s vision of a world in which good relations with both East and West are possible could be an evolution precisely from its position on the conflict in Ukraine, where Ankara has had good relations with both Kiev and Moscow since before the war, to the extent that the first foreign visit of the new Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, has been to Turkey.
Rutte: Turkey has a ‘vital role’ in NATO
Asked about Turkey’s possible membership of the BRICS, NATO’s new Secretary General, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, insisted yesterday that Turkey plays a ‘vital role’ in defending the Atlantic Alliance’s southeastern flank, adding that Ankara has a ‘sovereign right’ to work with other partners.
‘Let us not forget that Turkey is a very important ally. It has one of the best-equipped military forces in NATO. It is vital to NATO’s geography, and it provides many capabilities to the Alliance,’ Rutte said during his visit to the Estonian capital Tallinn, a day before Erdoğan’s visit to the BRICS summit in Russia. ‘There will always be debates (within NATO),’ added Rutte, who stressed however that ’that does not mean that Turkey has not been, is not still and will not always be, and it is my absolute conviction, a highly valued member of NATO. We are very happy that it is our ally’.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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