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Turkey has put in an application to join the BRICS group of emerging market nations, according to Bloomberg, ahead of the bloc’s next summit due to take place in Russia on Oct. 22-24. It follows the recent expansion that added four new members to the BRICS (Iran, the UAE, Ethiopia and Egypt) at the beginning of 2024. Along with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the steps are part of finding new trade and financial relationships to rival the G7, Trans-Atlantic, Industrialized World and the Global North, or whatever the latest monikers are for including the broader West.
Background: With America and its allies launching an economic war on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, the appeal of challenging what many of the BRICS call “U.S. hegemony” has intensified. Alternatives have surfaced to circumvent the SWIFT payment system and towards a path of de-dollarization, as well as boosting the New Development Bank to counter Western dominated institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. In May, the G7 went further by announcing its intention to use profits from frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine, while Moscow has already effectively seized many Western corporations and said it could take further action.
“Turkey can become a strong, prosperous, prestigious and effective country if it improves its relations with the East and West simultaneously,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared over the weekend. “We do not have to choose between the European Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as some people claim. On the contrary, we have to develop our relations with both these and other organizations on a win-win basis.”
What to watch: Turkey has been upset over its paused bid to join the EU, which has been stalled since 2016 due to needed economic and political reforms. Ankara can still take advantage of its customs union with the EU, but the country is now looking to diversify international partnerships by forging alliances beyond its Western partners. Should Turkey join the BRICS, it would be the first NATO ally to join the bloc. It’s part of a dual strategy that Turkey hopes will give it outsized influence, unless its quest for extra leverage backfires and it is forced to take a side.
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