Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov earlier told reporters that the number of states wishing to cooperate with BRICS in one form or another, including membership in the association, has reached 34, and the association's summit in Kazan will be the largest foreign policy event ever held in Russia. Ushakov also confirmed that Turkiye has applied for full-scale participation in BRICS, and the application is under consideration. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take part in the BRICS summit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said earlier.
"We have expressed interest in BRICS... You make a declaration of intent. After this declaration, if you look at the current BRICS mechanism, they invite you to become either a partner country or a member country, and then you make a decision... We see that there is great interest from countries to join [BRICS], we are closely monitoring this, we have contacts with them, we are also looking at what the next growth strategy will be... In conditions when economic partnerships are expanding, interest in BRICS is growing," Fidan said in an interview with Turkish TV channel HaberGlobal.
The BRICS summit with the participation of heads of state will be held in the Russian city of Kazan on October 22-24.
BRICS is an intergovernmental association created in 2006. Russia assumed the BRICS chairmanship on January 1, 2024. The year began with the accession of new members to the association - in addition to Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, it now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Russia's BRICS presidency focuses on strengthening multilateralism for fair global development and security. As part of its presidency, Russia is organizing more than 200 political, economic and social events.
On Ukrainian Conflict Mediation
China and Brazil are interested in Turkiye joining the "peace platform" on Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
In late September, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China, Brazil and other countries of the Global South intend to create an open platform "Friends of Peace" to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
"China and Brazil have now united and formed a peace platform on Ukraine consisting of six. They are interested in including us in this process," Fidan said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster Haber Global on Thursday.
In May, China and Brazil issued the document "The Common Understandings Between China and Brazil on Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis" following a meeting between Wang and Brazilian presidential aide Celso Amorim in Beijing. In the joint document, the two countries advocated that dialogue and negotiations are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis and expressed support for an international peace conference that is recognized by both Moscow and Kiev.