Turkey Willing to Join BRICS
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey would like to join the BRICS group of nations and intends to bring up the issue at an upcoming meeting of the economic bloc’s foreign ministry heads in Russia, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters during a three-day visit to China, Fidan stated that Turkey has long been waiting to become a member of the European Union, but has for years faced opposition from some of that bloc’s members. In this context, Ankara is now considering BRICS as an alternative platform for integration, the minister said, RT reported.
“We cannot ignore the fact that BRICS, as an important cooperation platform, offers some other countries a good alternative,” Fidan said, noting that while the group still has “a long way to go,” Ankara sees the “potential in BRICS”.
During an event at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing, Fidan said he was looking forward to attending the meeting of the group’s foreign ministers, which will include representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The event is set to take place next week in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Moscow has welcomed Ankara’s interest in joining BRICS. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the topic of Turkey’s membership in the group will be featured on the agenda of next week’s summit, which is being chaired by Russia this year.
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also noted that the doors of BRICS are open to the representatives of the most “diverse economic and political systems and macro-regions.”
