Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who is on a visit to China, said that Ankara wishes to join BRICS, this issue will be discussed at the meeting of ministers of the association in Nizhny Novgorod.
A meeting of BRICS foreign ministers will be held in Nizhny Novgorod on 10-11 June. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the event will be held in an expanded format due to the participation of partners that are not members of the association.
“Of course, we would like to become a member of BRICS. Let’s see what we can achieve this year,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) quoted Hakan Fidan as saying.
The minister clarified that some European states are against Turkey joining the EU, so the Turkish government is considering BRICS as an alternative platform for integration.
“We cannot ignore the fact that BRICS as an important platform for co-operation offers some other countries a good alternative. <…>. We see potential in BRICS,” the Turkish foreign minister explained.
According to SCMP, Fidan also said during the event in Beijing that he expects to attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in Russia. It is expected that during the meeting one of the topics will be the possibility of joining the association of Turkey, which is a member of NATO.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was going through a difficult period in Russian history. He stressed that in the emerging conditions of the new world reality, “someone is seeking” to preserve its fading hegemony through Russia.