MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aspiration to make his country a full-fledged member of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), expressed at the Johannesburg summit, cannot be fulfilled now, Executive Director for the National Committee on BRICS Research Georgy Toloraya told TASS.
"The Turkish president may voice his country’s wish to become a BRICS member while being well aware that this cannot be fulfilled. In any case, right now BRICS made a decision not to consider expanding membership in this association until a mechanism is fine-tuned inside the group making it possible to make agreements and find a compromise," said Toloraya, who is the Director of the Asian Strategy Center at the Institute of Economics within the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Now everything is very complicated, and if more members join BRICS, it will be impossible at all to reach any agreements, and that’s why BRICS decided not to consider the issue of expansion," the expert noted. "The intentions voiced by various countries in this respect are viewed favorably, but no steps are being made in this direction."
Turkey and other states expressing their desire to join BRICS enjoy efficient options for cooperation with BRICS without obtaining membership, he said. "Such large countries as Turkey, Indonesia, Argentina and Egypt are natural partners of BRICS and they seek to cooperate with them in the framework of BRICS plus and BRICS outreach," Toloraya said.
Turkey’s NATO membership is not an obstacle for cooperation with BRICS, he said. Toloraya also hoped that cooperation by Turkey and other countries with the organization would be permanent rather than periodic.
"These may be sectoral mechanisms of cooperation and these countries may also participate through the mechanism of the BRICS New Development Bank," he noted." "We are happy about Turkey’s cooperation, but talk on its membership in the group is empty."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on BRICS’ leadership at the Johannesburg summit on July 25-27 to greenlight Turkey’s membership into the association, which then could be called BRICST.
