{"id":813747,"date":"2025-02-24T06:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T04:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=813747"},"modified":"2025-02-24T06:58:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T04:58:41","slug":"another-country-wants-to-join-south-africa-and-other-brics-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/813747\/another-country-wants-to-join-south-africa-and-other-brics-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Another country wants to join South Africa and other BRICS nations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey is seeking to join BRICS nations as part of efforts to strengthen its economy after decades of unsuccessful attempts to gain membership in the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is \u201ckeen to increase Turkey\u2019s economic options\u201d, and the EU was \u201cour first choice,\u201d Fidan told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we cannot be part of the EU, then other alternatives will always be on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister\u2019s remarks underscore Turkey\u2019s ongoing search for economic alliances that could serve as an alternative to the EU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidan stressed that Turkey has not entirely abandoned hope of joining the bloc and reiterated Ankara\u2019s long-standing complaint that cultural differences are the main reason for its stalled accession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU has said Turkey\u2019s membership is blocked due to concerns over human rights and democratic standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey has submitted a formal bid to join BRICS, with its leaders arguing that membership would grant Turkish businesses easier access to major emerging markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Turkey said in November it has only been granted \u201cpartner-country status,\u201d short of full membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the modern world, no one country can alone overcome economic and political issues,\u201d the minister said at the G-20 summit of foreign ministers in Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to BRICS, he said, \u201cWe are interested, but we have not been offered a membership yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BRICS group \u2014 the acronym represents members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa \u2014 has been expanding, adding five more nations, including Iran and Indonesia, in the past year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others are seeking to join the bloc, which controls a multilateral lender and has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump for potentially undermining the global role of the dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While BRICS countries co-operate on some level \u2014 particularly financial \u2014 they lack the cohesiveness of the EU, in part due to different interests and economic trajectories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Fidan, a greater focus on international cooperation would benefit all countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we can institutionalise multilateralism, it would be easy for us to address the problems of geopolitics, war and peace and economic problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, \u201cSelf-help is on the menu for every nation state. So it encourages very fierce competition,\u201d Fidan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey\u2019s push for multilateral action is reflected in its approach to Africa, where it has forged ties with countries like Somalia on counterterrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTurkey is offering an opportunity for some African countries,\u201d Fidan said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Minister of Foreign Affairs of T\u00fcrkiye Hakan Fidan <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another country is seeking to join BRICS to strengthen its economy after decades of unsuccessful attempts to join the EU. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":798133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1850,2091,853],"class_list":["post-813747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bloomberg","tag-brics","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813751,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813747\/revisions\/813751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}