Starting in the 1940s, Turkey, wary of Moscow, positioned itself as an ally of the US and soon after joined NATO, the military alliance founded to protect Europe against Soviet attack during the Cold War. Since coming to power in 2003, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gradually reinvented Turkey as a power in its own right that’s free to make new friends even if it upsets the old ones. In the past decade, it’s been courting a number of US adversaries — China, Russia and Iran — as distrust of Western powers propelled its search for new partnerships. Now it’s seeking to join those three countries in the BRICS group of emerging-market nations.
Citing frustration over a lack of progress in its decades-old bid to join the European Union, Turkey has formally asked to join BRICS. The aim, according to people familiar with the matter, is to bolster Turkey’s global influence and forge new ties beyond the country’s traditional Western allies. Officials in Erdogan’s administration say that the geopolitical center of gravity is shifting away from developed economies and that joining BRICS could improve Turkey’s economic ties with Russia and China.
