The Turkish president will journey to the assembly after Ankara reportedly utilized for membership within the financial bloc
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted the Kremlin’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit within the Russian metropolis of Kazan subsequent month, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov stated on Tuesday.
“The proposal was conveyed to the Turkish facet, [and] Erdogan accepted it,” he instructed Russia’s Interfax information company.
Ushakov’s assertion got here a day after Bloomberg reported that Türkiye had utilized for membership of the BRICS financial bloc. In accordance with the outlet, Ankara submitted an software to affix the group “some months in the past,” partially pushed by “rifts” between Türkiye and the remainder of NATO over the Ukraine battle.
If the report is true, Türkiye could be the primary NATO state to hunt membership of the non-Western BRICS group. Again in June, Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan acknowledged that Türkiye meant to affix the bloc, earlier than discussing the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Because the time period was first coined in 2001, BRICS has grown from an acronym into an off-the-cuff alliance that has overtaken the US-led G7 bloc in its share of worldwide GDP, has its personal improvement financial institution, and has expanded from 4 members – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – to 9, together with South Africa, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
Erdogan has attended BRICS summits earlier than, however by no means as a potential member of the bloc. Earlier this 12 months, nameless Turkish officers instructed Center East Eye that tensions with the European Union had pressured Ankara to look elsewhere for brand spanking new financial companions.
“We don’t see Brics as an alternative choice to NATO or the EU,” one official stated. “Nonetheless, the stalled accession course of to the European Union encourages us to discover different financial platforms.”
The official added that, whereas NATO’s different 31 member states are “on-paper allies” of Türkiye, they typically overlook Ankara’s safety considerations and deny it the newest navy tools.
“We wish to be a part of each multilateral platform, even when there may be solely a slight likelihood of profit to us,” the official defined
As of Tuesday afternoon, Erdogan’s workplace had not confirmed the president’s participation within the Kazan summit. The gathering is about to happen on October 22-24 within the southwestern Russian metropolis.
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