Analysts see Türkiye's admission into the BRICS international locations as a strategic and symbolic step

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends the BRICS+ meeting as part of a two-day BRICS Foreign Ministers Summit to be held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.

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Turkey's application to join the BRICS alliance is seen as a strategic and symbolic step as the Eurasian country of 85 million people continues to expand its influence and standing on the world stage.

“Our president has already expressed several times that we want to become a member of the BRICS,” a spokesman for Turkey's leading AK Party told journalists in early September. “Our request on this matter is clear and the process is taking place within this framework.”

BRICS, the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of emerging countries that want to deepen their economic relations. This year, four new members joined: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

It is also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations such as the EU, the G7 and even NATO, even though it lacks a formal structure, enforcement mechanisms and uniform rules and standards.

For Turkey, a long-time Western ally and NATO member since 1952, joining BRICS is “consistent with its broader geopolitical evolution: positioning itself as an independent actor in a multipolar world and even becoming a power pole in its own right,” George Dyson, senior analyst at Control Risks, told CNBC.

“This does not mean that Turkey is turning away from the West completely,” Dyson added, “but Turkey wants to maintain as many trade links as possible and to exploit opportunities unilaterally without being constrained by the Western alignment. It is definitely symbolic that Turkey is demonstrating exactly that – that it is not constrained by its good relations with the West.”

Diversification of alliances

Despite decades of ties with Europe and the USA, Turkey is repeatedly deterred from joining the EU, which has long been a sore point for Ankara.

Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a former White House official and currently a senior State Department official based in Istanbul, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government “appear to be motivated primarily by two factors: a strategic tradition of securing national interests … and a desire to instill a little fear in the West, both out of emotional spite and as a negotiating tactic to force concessions.”

CNBC has asked the Turkish president's office for comment.

In recent years, Turkey has expanded its role in global diplomacy, brokering prisoner exchange deals and leading other negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, while trying to improve previously strained relations with regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, most recently, Egypt.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their joint press conference in Sochi, Russia, September 4, 2023.

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Ankara also refuses to participate in sanctions against Russia. This stance, while angering Western allies, helps the country maintain its independent position as a so-called “middle power,” which it believes benefits its relations with China and developing countries.

To this end, “each new BRICS member is clearly seeking to take advantage of the greater cohesion of emerging economies to reduce dependence on developed countries, especially the United States,” says Arda Tunca, an independent economist and consultant based in Turkey.

Stand up to the West?

Tunca noted, however, that Turkey's unique position in the world was a “delicate point of discussion” because the country, despite its Western alliances, had “serious political problems with the EU and the US.”

The Turkish ruling party, which has ruled the country for 22 years, is “ideologically closer to the East than the West,” Tunca said. “Turkey wanted to jump on the BRICS bandwagon before it was too late. It is too early to say that the BRICS can become an alternative to the West, but the intention is clearly to oppose the West under the leadership of China.”

Importantly, BRICS members will be able to trade in currencies other than the dollar. This is intended to reduce dependence on the US-led system and usher in a more multipolar world. The fact that China is taking the lead makes some in the West suspicious and sees it as a potential victory for Beijing.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not pictured) is greeted by Chinese President Xi Jinping during the 11th G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.

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“I do not believe that there is an enforcement of their [BRICS’] decisions, it's more of a geopolitical thing, a kind of symbolic counterpart to the G7,” Dyson said. He also noted: “It's interesting that both Iran and the United Arab Emirates are in it. It's a bit like the anti-Western team.”

Erdogan has spoken of his desire to join the BRICS group since at least 2018, but the issue was never formalized. In June, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited both China and Russia, the latter for a BRICS+ summit where Russian President Vladimir Putin said he “welcomed” Turkey's interest in joining the bloc.

The then US ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, expressed in an interview at the time his hope that Turkey would not join the group. However, he did not believe that this would have a negative impact on the country's orientation towards the West.