Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan praised BRICS and criticised the EU at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara on Monday, the three-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, for talks on issues ranging from the conflict to Türkiye's EU and BRICS aspirations.
Speaking at a joint press conference after the meeting, Fidan claimed that Türkiye's EU membership negotiations had "de facto stopped" due to the bloc's "Islamophobic" view.
NATO member Türkiye became a candidate to join the EU in 1999 and started membership negotiations in 2005. Yet its bid stalled in 2018 over the country's democratic backsliding and erosion of the rule of law under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as well as its disputes with EU member Cyprus.
"We have a long-standing membership adventure with the European Union, which is right next to us and which is highly institutionalised," Fidan said.
"The membership negotiations have frozen at some point due to the European Union's discomfort in taking a large Muslim country into its fold due to its identity politics. No one says this openly, but this is the situation," he added.
Touching upon the issue of cooperation with the BRICS group of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates), Fidan emphasised the importance of Türkiye's presence in different forums in order to consolidate its place in the global economic order.
Türkiye requested to join the group, which is chaired by Russia, as a full member last year with the stated aim of "simultaneously" strengthening its ties with East and West, but Fidan said it had not been offered membership.
"We closely follow BRICS, we have clearly shown our interest, but as far as we understand, BRICS has frozen the recruitment of new members in order to carry its own institutionalisation to a point," he said. "We have not been offered membership. Therefore, we continue to follow closely at the moment."
Praising BRICS in comparison with the EU, Fidan said, "Unlike the European Union, the composition of BRICS is very inclusive. Seeing countries of all colours, religions, cultures and civilisations coming together ... Whatever people and civilisations there are, they are trying to create a platform here. I hope that an institutionalised and inclusive economic approach will also develop here."
In September last year, Fidan said that Türkiye would not be seeking BRICS membership if the country had been granted EU membership.
Türkiye considers BRICS as a chance to boost economic cooperation with member states, and has its officials have stressed that potential membership would not affect the country's responsibilities to NATO or ties with Western countries.
Erdoğan, who has been in power for more than two decades, has sought to carve a more independent foreign policy for Türkiye and to enhance its global influence.