Turkey, a NATO member state, submitted on Tuesday an application to join the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the ruling party's spokesperson announced on Tuesday."Our president has repeatedly said that we want to become a member of BRICS. (...) The process is underway," said Ömer Çelik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP)."If there are any concrete developments regarding our membership in BRICS, any decision or assessment of BRICS, we will share them with you," Çelik said at a press conference."Our president has clearly stated that Turkey wants to take part in all important platforms, including BRICS," Çelik added.With four members (Brazil, China, India and Russia) when it was created in 2009, the bloc was joined by South Africa in 2010 and expanded this year to include several other emerging countries, including Egypt and Iran."We do not consider BRICS as an alternative to any other structure," said Presi dent Erdogan in July, whose country is still officially a candidate for entry into the European Union.However, accession negotiations with the latter, which began in 2005, have been at a standstill for several years, with relations with the EU having deteriorated sharply following an attempted coup in July 2016 in Turkey.Turkey is the only EU candidate and the only NATO member to have knocked on the door of this club bringing together the main emerging countries, which is due to meet at a summit in October in Kazan (Russia).She had participated in a previous BRICS summit in South Africa in 2018."Turkey can become a strong, prosperous and respected country if it develops its relations with the East and the West simultaneously," Erdogan said on Saturday.Source: Burkina Information Agency
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