ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey has submitted a request to join the BRICS group of major emerging market nations, the spokesman of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party said Tuesday.
Turkey has taken no concrete steps towards meeting its stated desire to join the BRICS group of emerging economies but "a process is underway", Omer Celik, spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on Tuesday.
If admitted, Turkey would become the first NATO member in the group which sees itself as a counterweight to the Western-led global order.
"Our president has many times stated that we want to become a BRICS member. The process is now under way," said Celik.
After starting in the early 2000s as investor shorthand for the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the four nations created the BRIC international forum in 2009.
South Africa joined a year later, making it BRICS, and Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined at the beginning of this year.
Turkey participated in a BRICS summit in South Africa in 2018.
"Our president has clearly stated that Turkey wants to take part in all important platforms, including BRICS," Celik told a news conference.
Erdogan said Saturday that "Turkey can become a strong country, prosperous and respected if it simultaneously develops relations with the East and West."
He said in June that he doesn't view BRICS membership as an alternative to membership in other groups, and the country officially remains a candidate to join the European Union.
But EU membership talks, launched in 2005, have gone nowhere since a crackdown on Turkish opposition groups following a failed coup in 2016.
Turkey has also maintained close relations with Moscow despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine.