Turkey’s bid for BRICS each strategic and symbolic step, analysts say

Turkey’s request to affix the BRICS alliance is a transfer seen as each strategic and symbolic because the Eurasian nation of 85 million makes growing strides in its affect and leverage on the worldwide stage.

“Our president has already expressed a number of occasions that we want to turn out to be a member of BRICS,” a spokesperson for Turkey’s main AK Get together instructed journalists earlier in September. “Our request on this matter is evident, and the method is continuing inside this framework.”

BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a bunch of rising market international locations that search to deepen their financial ties. This yr, it gained 4 new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. 

It is also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations just like the EU, the G7 and even NATO, though it lacks formal construction, enforcement mechanisms, and uniform guidelines and requirements. 

For Turkey, a longtime Western ally and NATO member since 1952, the transfer to affix BRICS is “in keeping with its broader geopolitical journey: positioning itself as an impartial actor in a multi-polar world and even turning into a pole of energy in its personal proper,” George Dyson, a senior analyst at Management Dangers, instructed CNBC.

“This isn’t to say that Turkey is popping away from the West completely,” Dyson added, “however Turkey desires to foster as many buying and selling ties as doable and pursue alternatives unilaterally with out being constrained by Western alignment. It’s positively symbolic in that Turkey is demonstrating precisely this — that it isn’t constrained by its good ties with the West.”

Regardless of a long time of being aligned with Europe and the U.S., Turkey has confronted constant rejection from becoming a member of the EU, which has lengthy been a sore spot for Ankara.

Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a former White Home and Senior State Division official at the moment primarily based in Istanbul, mentioned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his authorities “appear to be motivated principally by two elements: A strategic custom of securing nationwide pursuits… and a need to spook the West a bit, each out of emotional spite and as a negotiating tactic to extract concessions.”

CNBC has contacted the Turkish presidency’s workplace for remark.

Turkey has in the previous couple of years expanded its function in international diplomacy, brokering prisoner swap offers and main different negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as an illustration, whereas additionally mending beforehand strained relations with regional powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most lately, Egypt.

Ankara additionally refuses to partake in sanctions towards Russia — a stance that irks its Western allies however helps it keep an impartial place as a so-called “center energy,” which it sees as helpful to its relationships with China and the International South.

To that finish, “any new BRICS member is clearly desirous to reap the benefits of stronger ‘togetherness’ of rising economies with a purpose to scale back dependency on developed economies, primarily the USA,” mentioned Arda Tunca, an impartial economist and guide primarily based in Turkey.

Tunca famous, nonetheless, that Turkey’s distinctive place on the planet is a “delicate dialogue level” because the nation has “severe political issues with the EU and the USA” regardless of its western alliances.

Turkey’s governing celebration, which has run the nation for 22 years, is “ideologically nearer to the East than the West,” Tunca mentioned. “Turkey needed to hop on the BRICS practice earlier than it was late. It’s too early to say that the BRICS can turn out to be a substitute for the West, however the intention is clearly to face up towards the West beneath the management of China.”

Importantly, being a part of BRICS permits its members to commerce in currencies apart from {dollars}. This goals to scale back dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a extra multi-polar world. The truth that it is led by China makes some within the West cautious, who see this as a possible win for Beijing. 

“I do not assume there’s any enforcement of their [BRICS’] selections, it is extra of a geopolitical factor, type of a symbolic counter to the G7,” Dyson mentioned. He additionally famous: “It is attention-grabbing that Iran and UAE are each in it. It is a bit just like the anti-West group.” 

Erdogan has spoken of his need to affix BRICS since not less than 2018, however the subject was by no means formalized. In June, Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan visited each China and Russia, the latter for a BRICS+ summit, throughout which Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned he “welcomed” Turkey’s curiosity in becoming a member of the bloc.

On the time, the then-U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, mentioned in an interview that he hoped Turkey would not be a part of the group, however added that he didn’t assume it could negatively impression Turkey’s alignment with the West.