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October 25 Update: Turkiye has now been granted ‘BRICS Partner’ status. See more here.
As we suggested would happen earlier in June here Turkiye has made an official application to join the BRICS grouping. A rift with NATO over Ukraine are one reason for Ankara’s reported bid to join the group, which is due to hold its coming annual Heads of State summit in Kazan next month. Interestingly, Kazan is the capital city of Russia’s Tatarstan Republic, which is ethnically Turkic and maintains the strongest trade and cultural ties with Turkiye from all of the Russian Federation.
According to Bloomberg, Ankara submitted an application to join the BRICS following disagreements between Türkiye and NATO’s other member states over the Ukraine conflict. Since the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in 2022, Ankara has called for a diplomatic solution. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously criticized his allies’ strategy of providing military aid to Ukraine and stated that Türkiye “will not be a party to this war.” Ankara has instead maintained close ties with Moscow, while Türkiye’s senior politicians have claimed that the United Kingdom blocked a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement at an Istanbul peace summit in 2022.
The Turkish leadership is also reportedly growing frustrated over the lack of progress in its decades-long bid to join the European Union. Türkiye was declared a candidate country in 1999. However, the European Parliament suspended accession talks with the country in 2019 over alleged human rights violations.
BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011, while Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined the group earlier this year.
We can take a quick look at Turkiye’s trade with each of the BRICS countries as follows (2022 data):
Turkiye – Brazil
2022 bilateral trade reached a record high of US$6 billion, up from US$4.6 billion in 2021.
Turkiye – China
2022 bilateral trade reached US$38.55 billion, up from US$31.6 billion in 2021. 85% of this trade is Chinese exports. China has pledged to increase Turkish imports and to allow import payments from China in Turkish lira.
Turkiye – Egypt
Bilateral trade reached US$7.7 billion in 2022, a 14% increase from the year before.
Turkiye – Ethiopia
Trade has remained static at about the US$400 million level the past three years. 2/3 of this are Turkish exports.
Turkiye – India
Bilateral trade grew to US$10.71 billion in 2022 from US$7.08 billion in 2021.
Turkiye – Iran
Bilateral trade with Iran rose 19% in 2022 to reach US$12.7 billion.
Turkiye – Russia
In 2022, trade between Turkiye and Russia reached US$62 billion, an increase from US$33 billion in 2021.
Turkiye – South Africa
Bilateral trade with South Africa reached US$1.837 billion in 2022, an increase from US$1.404 billion in 2021. Turkiye’s overall trade with the African continent increased from US$25 billion in 2020 to US$34 billion in 2021.
Turkiye – United Arab Emirates
In 2022, Turkiye was the fastest-growing of the UAE’s trading partners, with non-oil trade climbing 40% to US$18.9 billion. With the implementation of the mutual CEPA trade agreement, bilateral trade is expected to reach US$40 billion by 2027.
As can be seen, Turkiye’s trade dynamics with each of the BRICS countries (with the sole exception of Ethiopia, which has remained static) is highly positive. It would appear to be a common-sense trade and investment move to cement that by becoming an official BRICS member state. An official announcement could be made at this year’s BRICS summit in October as all parties appear keen to get the Turkiye BRICS application over the line as soon as possible.
Further Reading
Russia, Turkiye Plan To Increase Bilateral Trade To US$100 Billion
