Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he expected his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to attend a BRICS summit in Russia next month, after Turkey asked to join the group of emerging economies, Agence France-Presse reported.
Putin said he was due to meet with Erdoğan on October 23, a day after the start of the summit in the Russian city of Kazan.
A spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said early this month, “Our president has many times stated that we want to become a BRICS member. The process is now under way.”
If admitted, Turkey would become the first NATO member in the group, which sees itself as a counterweight to the Western-led global order.
“In October we will see each other again in Kazan at the BRICS summit, I have a separate meeting planned with him,” Putin said while meeting the speaker of the Turkish parliament, Numan Kurtulmuş.
After starting in the early 2000s as investor shorthand for the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the four nations created the BRIC international forum in 2009.
South Africa joined a year later, making it BRICS, and Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined at the beginning of this year.
Turkey participated in a BRICS summit in South Africa in 2018.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the BRICS summit in October, Putin said this month.