Turkey wants to join BRICS

Turkey would like to join BRICS, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.

"Certainly, we would like to become a member of BRICS. So we’ll see how it goes this year," Fidan said.

According to the South China Morning Post, Fidan also said that he was hoping to attend the group’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod. One of the topics on the agenda is expected to be the possibility of Turkey, a NATO ally, joining the BRICS grouping.

Kremlin's reaction

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia welcomes Turkiye's interest towards BRICS.

"Of course, we all welcome this increased interest in BRICS on the part of our neighboring states, including our important partners such as Turkiye," Peskov said.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that the topic of this interest will be on the agenda of the BRICS summit, which will be chaired by Russia

Peskov noted that BRICS is unlikely to fully satisfy expectations of all countries that show interest in the group, but BRICS is interested in contacts.