Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claimed on Monday his country was interested in becoming a member of the anti-American BRICS coalition but never received an invite and that BRICS had suspended allowing new members at all.
The remarks were notable because Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended last year’s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, and BRICS publicly extended “partner” status to Turkey. Reports at the time indicated that Ankara would not be satisfied with anything but full membership, a claim apparently confirmed by Fidan’s remarks on Monday.
Fidan told reporters this during a meeting with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia is one of BRICS’s most powerful members.
The BRICS coalition is named after its core members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It operates as an economic, diplomatic, and security coalition that advances its members’ interests, often at the expense of the United States and allied Western nations. In January 2024, BRICS announced it would be offering full membership to Egypt, Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Ethiopia. Egypt, Iran, the UAE, and Ethiopia accepted. Argentina, then under the new management of President Javier Milei, declined. Saudi Arabia refused to accept or reject the invitation and as of February 2025 was still considering it.
The Russia summit in October focused in part on whether to extend full membership invitations to other interested parties; Russian officials claimed that as many as 30 other countries were interested in joining. Ultimately, the organization decided to extend a “partnership” invite, which is not equivalent to full membership, to 13 countries, including Turkey.
“We are closely following BRICS and have clearly shown our interest,” Fidan said during his meeting with Lavrov, according to the regional outlet Turkish Minute. “However, as far as we understand, BRICS has currently suspended new member admissions as part of its institutional consolidation.”
“We haven’t received a membership offer, so for now, we will continue observing developments,” Fidan added, a remark apparently dismissive of the “partnership” offer. The Turkey state Anadolu Agency reported that Fidan recognized the offer, but indicated it was not of interest to Turkey.
“They have introduced a new category — a partnership. In other words, no membership offer has been extended to us,” Fidan was quoted as saying.
Fidan nonetheless praised BRICS as “remarkably inclusive,” particularly in contrast to the European Union, which Turkey has attempted and failed to join for decades.
“It brings together countries of every color, religion, culture and civilization — Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist; Black, White — creating a platform that embraces diversity,” Fidan complimented. “I hope this leads to an economic approach that is both institutionalized and inclusive.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan on October 23, 2024. (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Turkish government recognized the “partnership” invitation in November, describing it as a “transitional” move towards becoming a full member. Notably, Turkey received that invitation alongside several other far less economically and militarily powerful nations, including Cuba, Belarus, and Uzbekistan.
The second wave of BRICS expansion – the 2024 wave that included Iran, UAE, and Egypt – appeared focused on bringing into the foray countries with substantial natural resources, particularly oil. The BRICS “partners” have little to offer a coalition including some of the world’s largest and most populous countries, especially in contrast to Turkey. Turkey is the only member of the NATO military alliance to express public interest in joining BRICS, potentially bringing with it unique expertise on how the American and other allied armed forces operation.
Aside from Turkey, French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to obtain an invitation to the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa, but was met with confusion and disgust.
Erdogan attended the 2024 BRICS summit and delivered remarks praising the coalition’s potential.
“We believe that BRICS makes unique contributions to the construction of a fairer global order by serving the enhancement of global trade, economic growth and sustainable development goals,” Erdogan declared. “We are determined to enhance our dialogue with the BRICS family, too, with which we have developed close relations on the basis of mutual respect and win-win approach.”
That summit featured reported discussions of BRICS creating an international payment platform or even a separate currency to protect the rogue states in its fold from free world sanctions. It also featured direct anti-American rhetoric from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who described the objective of the coalition as seeking “to counter US unilateralism tied to the dollar, as it imposes sanctions at will, exacerbating global economic challenges.”
“I believe that if we can implement the goals of this organization and the discussions and agreements made at this meeting, the conspiracy by the United States and its allies will gradually be neutralized,” he insisted.
Following his election victory in November, President Donald Trump rapidly moved to address the threat of a rival BRICS currency.
“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” he wrote on his social media site Truth Social. “We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy.”
“There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” he warned.
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