'It does not mean withdrawal from NATO': Erdoğan justifies Türkiye's plans to join BRICS
Photo: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Türkiye (Getty Images)
Türkiye's intention to join BRICS does not mean it will abandon its membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. These structures are not alternatives to each other, states Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to the Turkish leader, his country "cannot ignore the fact" of its ties with continental Europe and the US, as well as with Central Asia, Russia, the Baltic region, and the Far East. At the same time, Türkiye has a "deep history" of relations with the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and close ties with Africa.
Erdoğan added that Türkiye's geography and millennia-long history "encourage it to build such a diverse partnership architecture."
"Just because we are a NATO country, we cannot sever our ties with the Turkic and Islamic worlds. BRICS and ASEAN are structures that provide us with opportunities for economic cooperation. Participation in these structures does not mean abandoning NATO. We do not believe that these alliances and cooperations are alternatives to each other," the president said.
He also noted that those who allegedly urged Türkiye not to join BRICS or any other structure are the ones who "made it wait at the doors of the European Union."
What preceded this
At the beginning of September, it became known that Türkiye had applied to join BRICS.
In a comment to RBC-Ukraine, Natalia Butyrska, a master's degree holder in foreign policy and an expert on East Asia, explained that Ankara has several reasons for this.
One of them is that Türkiye has been repeatedly denied entry into the European Union for a long time.
