Russia welcomes Türkiye's reported interest in joining the BRICS economic bloc, the Kremlin spokesperson said on Tuesday, saying the subject would be on the agenda of the organization's next summit.
"We, of course, all welcome the increased interest in BRICS on the part of our neighbors, including such important partners as Türkiye," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a press briefing in Moscow.
Expressing that Türkiye's interest in the bloc will be on the agenda of the BRICS summit to be chaired by Russia, Peskov said the organization is unlikely to fully satisfy the interest of all countries wishing to join.
"But BRICS is interested in maintaining contacts with all interested states. For this purpose, various formats for maintaining contacts are now being thought through. This is a process extended over time. But we welcome such keen interest," he added.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan began visiting Beijing, the highest-level visit by a Turkish official to BRICS member China since 2012. Fidan held talks with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and other officials during the visit.
When asked whether Türkiye would want to join BRICS during a talk at the Center for China and Globalization on Monday, Fidan said, "We would like to, of course; why would we not?," a report from Reuters indicated. However, he did not elaborate further.
The Anadolu Agency (AA) quoted Fidan as saying that while Türkiye was in a customs union with Brussels, it was also exploring new opportunities for cooperation with several partners in different platforms, such as BRICS, and that he would attend a planned meeting of the group next week in Russia.
The Russian city Nizhny Novgorod will host a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers on June 10-11.
It was not immediately clear whether Ankara would take steps to join the BRICS group, as Ankara has not previously stated its desire to formally join.
BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and recently admitted Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as full members.