Turkey's Erdogan agrees to meet Russia's Putin at BRICS summit

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00:00Well, the BRICS alliance, which initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and

00:04South Africa, has expanded rapidly.

00:07There are more countries hoping to join, among them Turkey, which has formally applied to

00:11become a member.

00:12Our correspondent there, Jasper Mortimer, tells us why Turkey wants to join and what

00:16it could mean for global diplomacy.

00:19Turkey seeks to boost its role in world affairs by getting together with other developing

00:24countries to form an alliance that can stand up to the West.

00:28The West has the G7, the European Union.

00:32Developing states have BRICS.

00:34Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said last week that Turkey wouldn't be so interested in

00:39joining BRICS if it had been admitted to the EU.

00:43And Turkey's not alone in its enthusiasm for BRICS.

00:46You know, the Russians are saying they expect 20 heads of state to attend this summit.

00:52Now, BRICS only has 10 members.

00:55That means half the participants are the leaders of non-member states.

01:00And this is a big slap in the face to Western attempts to isolate Russia because of its

01:06invasion of Ukraine.

01:08By going to this summit, presidents such as Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan are saying that

01:15Russia is still important and President Vladimir Putin is still influential.

01:22So an important presence then for Russia.

01:25What would Turkey's membership mean for Russia?

01:29Well, what Russia wants from this summit is Turkish support for two of President Putin's

01:37pet projects.

01:38The first is setting up a system of international payments that's an alternative to the dollar-based

01:45SWIFT system.

01:47And he will get President Erdogan's support on that.

01:51But it's going to be very difficult to achieve.

01:54Turkey's biggest trading partner, for instance, is the EU.

01:58And it's going to be very hard for Turkey to turn its back on the established system

02:03of international payments.

02:05Secondly, Putin wants Turkey to make itself into a hub for the sale of Russian natural

02:12gas to the rest of the world.

02:15Putin's been pushing this idea for two years now.

02:18But Turkey's not too enthusiastic.

02:20I think it's because Turkey doesn't want to become saddled with a lot of Russian gas

02:27that the Europeans don't want to buy.

02:30You know, Turkey does get gas from other countries such as Iran, but most of it comes from Russia.

02:37If it becomes a hub for Russian gas, although gas doesn't carry a label saying made in Russia,

02:45the Europeans will know that what Turkey is trying to sell them is mostly Russian gas.

02:52And they want to cut off their imports from Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.

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