Lula – Erdogan Meeting: Turkey’s Accession to BRICS Discussed

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met on the sidelines of the G7 summit held in Italy.

On that occasion, according to a Brazilian government statement, Erdogan asked Lula to support Ankara’s membership in BRICS, a bloc of countries initially made up of Russia, India, China, South Africa, as well as Brazil itself, and which in 2024 expanded to also include Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran.

Lula responded positively to Erdogan’s request: he would support Turkey’s entry into BRICS and also said he would visit the country. In any case, they will meet again in November 2024 in Rio de Janeiro on the occasion of the G20 summit.

Recently, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan explicitly expressed interest in joining BRICS: “Ankara would like to become a full BRICS member,” he explained after some diplomatic meetings in China and on the eve of attending a meeting of the group’s leaders, which met in Nizhny Novgorod in Russia.