Geopolitics > Turkey pursues membership in BRICS despite its NATO membership

 

NATO member Turkey to request membership

in BRICS economic bloc spearheaded by Russia and China

Sep 3, 2024 6:30 am By Robert Spencer

“There is a belief in Ankara that it can do this ‘without a political cost that would be attached to this realignment.’”

That is only because of the weakness and wrongheadedness of the Biden-Harris regime. Turkey should be expelled from NATO. But it will not be.

NATO member Turkey to request membership of Russia-led BRICS

Euractiv, September 2, 2024:

Turkey will be the first NATO member to request membership of the BRICS economic bloc spearheaded by the leaders of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, agencies reported.

Bloomberg said Monday (2 September) that Ankara had formally asked to join the group of emerging market nations as it looks beyond its traditional Western allies. Newsweek has contacted the Turkish Foreign Ministry for comment.

“Turkey can become a strong, prosperous, prestigious and effective country if it improves its relations with the East and the West simultaneously,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in Istanbul over the weekend. “Any method other than this will not benefit Turkey, but will harm it.”

“We do not have to choose between the European Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] as some people claim,” Erdoğan added. “On the contrary, we have to develop our relations with both these and other organisations on a win-win basis,” Erdoğan added….

“This is not the strategy, by Ankara, to replace the West, but it’s a strategy to strengthen relations with non-Western powers at a time when the US hegemony is waning,” said Sinan Ülgen, head of the Istanbul-based think tank EDAM….

“The bilateral relationship with the US has also been problematic,” Ülgen said, as quoted by Newsweek. “These type of frustrations have motivated the Turkish government to move in this direction,” he added. There is a belief in Ankara that it can do this “without a political cost that would be attached to this realignment.”

I believe they have a point. America's military association with Turkey is very important and will not be tossed away easily. On the other hand, America may not agree with Turkey's assessment that its hegemony is decreasing and may want to show otherwise.