Turkey was offered partner country status by the BRICS group of nations, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said, as Ankara continues what it calls its efforts to balance its Eastern and Western ties.
Omer Bolat © TPN
Turkey was offered partner country status by the BRICS group of nations, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said, as Ankara continues what it calls its efforts to balance its Eastern and Western ties.
Turkey, a NATO member, has in recent months voiced interest in joining the BRICS group of emerging economies, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attended a BRICS leaders' summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan last month, after Ankara said it had taken formal steps to become a member of the group.
"As for Turkey's status regarding (BRICS) membership, they offered Turkey the status of partner membership," Bolat said in an interview with private broadcaster TVNet on Wednesday.
"This (status) is the transition process in the organisational structure of BRICS," he said.
Ankara sees the BRICS group as an opportunity to further economic cooperation with member states, rather than an alternative to its Western ties and NATO membership, Erdogan has said.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said potential membership of BRICS would not affect Turkey's responsibilities to the Western military alliance.
Aside from full membership, BRICS members introduced a "partner country" category in Kazan, according to the declaration issued by BRICS on Oct. 23.
Bolat did not say whether Ankara had accepted the proposal.
An official in Erdogan's ruling AK Party told Reuters this month that while the proposal had been discussed in Kazan, partner country status would fall short of Turkey's demands for membership.
By Jonathan Spicer
Five years ago, the West risked a full-blown diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Turkey when 10 ambassadors called for the release of a man they saw as a political prisoner, prompting an angry President Tayyip Erdogan to order their expulsion.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged countries to cover a $100 million gap in funding for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, saying the body was nearing a breaking point after deep cost-cutting and austerity measures.
Some 400,000 Lebanese uprooted by war have returned to southern Lebanon, with more expected to follow in the coming week, a government minister said on Tuesday, encouraged by a lull in the four-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.