GS Paper - II

Turkey has decided to officially bid to join BRICS, a grouping of some of the world’s emerging economies, originally comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — but largely dominated by Moscow and Beijing.

If Turkey indeed becomes a member of BRICS, often described as a counterbalance to a Western-led global order, it could move further away from joining the European Union (EU) — and from deriving benefits of the 27-member bloc’s single market.

EU expects candidates to share bloc’s values

• Turkey has the right to decide on its own international partnerships, the EU, however, expects candidate country to support EU values.
• All EU candidate countries to support EU values firmly and unequivocally to respect obligations deriving from relevant trade agreements and align with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.
• These are significant signals of shared values and interests, and of countries’ strategic orientation and Turkey’s aim to join the BRICS group as a reaction to its lagging progress in EU accession talks.
• In an annual report last year, European parliamentarians concluded that Turkey’s “alignment rate with the EU’s Common foreign and security policy has slipped to an all-time low of 7%, making it by far the lowest of all enlargement countries.”
• Turkey’s accession process started in 2005 but ground to a standstill in 2018 over several issues, including EU concerns on curbs on media freedom, executive control over the judiciary and insufficient civilian oversight of the Turkish security forces.

Eying BRICS a sign of Turkish frustration with EU?

• Turkey is not only cross with the EU over stalling its accession process but also for not moving forward on modernization of the customs or the trade agreement, nor on a roadmap for visa liberalization, which could clear the way for Turkey’s citizens totravel visa-free to European countries.
• The BRICS group has doubled in size since it was formed 15 years ago. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become members and the group has attracted applications from nearly 20 other countries, including Turkey.
• Members do not strive to form a cohesive group with a common security or foreign policy.
• Instead, its members aim to cooperate on trade and economic expansion and provide what they see as a political counterbalance to international institutions dominated by the United States and Europe.

Turkey: A mistrusted, necessary ally

• Turkish foreign and security policy decisions have already tarnished the country’s image in Western capitals.
• Turkey has refused to back sanctions against Russia, and instead become a top buyer of Russian crude oil.
• Turkey also supports Hamas, the militant, Islamist, Palestinian group that carried out terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2024 and which is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union as well as the United States, Germany and several other countries.
• The United States and other NATO allies were irate over Turkey’s purchase of S400 surface-to-air missile defense systems from Russia in 2017 and again in 2022 when Turkey held up Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO by two years before eventually giving up its opposition this year.
• However, Turkey’s strategic location between the west and east makes it critical for NATO and US missions in the region, and the country inked an EU-sought agreement in 2016 allowing for the return of some irregular migrants who reach the bloc from Turkey.