Iulian Chifu: "Turkey has found some advantages in the BRICS region that it cannot obtain in relation to the European Union"

Turkey's accession to BRICS is strictly the option of the authorities in Ankara, and contesting this decision by Romanian politicians would contravene the strategic and commercial interests of our country, political expert Iulian Chifu, former presidential adviser, told us.

Iulian Chifu stated: "We are strategic partners with Turkey, we have a developed relationship with this state and any exit to maritime trade passes through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. The guardian of these straits is Turkey, and bringing up issues of strategic options in the context of this country's accession to BRICS is an excessive attitude. Of course there are areas of divergence, there are areas of debate, but Turkey's accession to BRICS does not mean that Ankara has moved its place in space or azimuth. Turkey has found some advantages in the BRICS region that it cannot obtain in relation to the European Union".

The former presidential advisor believes that Turkey's decision to apply for BRICS membership is a result of this state's ambition to become one of the top ten economies in the world and to have multilateral relations with Russia, China and the other member countries of the international organization.

Iulian Chifu told us: On this background, although it has observer status in the case of BRICS, Turkey has chosen to submit an official application for membership to this international organization. I do not automatically contrast BRICS with NATO or the European Union. It should not be forgotten that Turkey is still an associated state, that it has a customs union with the EU, that there are negotiations with the Brussels institutions, an example of this being the participation of the representative of Turkey, after five years, at the informal meeting of foreign ministers from the member states of the European Union, an event that took place at the beginning of last week. That's why Turkey's gesture should not be seen in a contradictory form, but in a form of more important ambition and the need for relations with third countries. But we have to look carefully at BRICS, which is no longer just a meeting of five states that had different systems and approaches anyway, but it is an organization that now includes states from the Gulf area, from Africa, from South America. At the moment the mode of operation of BRICS is not a unitary one. BRICS is not a trade union, nor a customs union, but a gathering of states that want to develop a system and have a say in the development of the future world order. In other words, I would not make this step by Turkey an irreconcilable issue or a gesture of frond or another more blunt formula, but I would recognize Turkey's right to the extent that it respects the commitments made in relation to NATO and the European Union".

The former presidential adviser concluded by saying that Turkey's accession to BRICS is strictly the right of this state, given that the European Union cannot give the regime in Ankara what it wants.