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Turkey’s bid for BRICS both strategic and symbolic step, analysts say

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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attends the BRICS+ session on a two-day BRICS foreign ministers summit held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.

Sefa Karacan | Anadolu | Getty Images

Turkey’s request to join the BRICS alliance is a move seen as both strategic and symbolic as the Eurasian country of 85 million makes increasing strides in its influence and leverage on the global stage.

“Our president has already expressed multiple times that we wish to become a member of BRICS,” a spokesperson for Turkey’s leading AK Party told journalists earlier in September. “Our request in this matter is clear, and the process is proceeding within this framework.”

BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of emerging market countries that seek to deepen their economic ties. This year, it gained four new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE. 

It’s also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations like the EU, the G7 and even NATO, although it lacks formal structure, enforcement mechanisms, and uniform rules and standards. 

Tanto Capital Partners discusses Turkey's BRICS bid

For Turkey, a longtime Western ally and NATO member since 1952, the move to join BRICS is “in line with its broader geopolitical journey: positioning itself as an independent actor in a multi-polar world and even becoming a pole of power in its own right,” George Dyson, a senior analyst at Control Risks, told CNBC.

“This is not to say that Turkey is turning away from the West entirely,” Dyson added, “but Turkey wants to foster as many trading ties as possible and pursue opportunities unilaterally without being constrained by Western alignment. It is definitely symbolic in that Turkey is demonstrating exactly this — that it is not constrained by its good ties with the West.”

Diversifying alliances

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their joint press conference on September 4, 2023, in Sochi, Russia.

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Ankara also refuses to partake in sanctions against Russia — a stance that irks its Western allies but helps it maintain an independent position as a so-called “middle power,” which it sees as beneficial to its relationships with China and the Global South.

To that end, “any new BRICS member is obviously eager to take advantage of stronger ‘togetherness’ of emerging economies in order to reduce dependency on developed economies, mainly the United States,” said Arda Tunca, an independent economist and consultant based in Turkey.

Standing up to the West?

Tunca noted, however, that Turkey’s unique position in the world is a “delicate discussion point” as the country has “serious political problems with the EU and the United States” despite its western alliances.

Turkey’s governing party, which has run the country for 22 years, is “ideologically closer to the East than the West,” Tunca said. “Turkey wanted to hop on the BRICS train before it was late. It is too early to mention that the BRICS can become an alternative to the West, but the intention is clearly to stand up against the West under the leadership of China.”

Importantly, being part of BRICS allows its members to trade in currencies other than dollars. This aims to reduce dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a more multi-polar world. The fact that it’s led by China makes some in the West wary, who see this as a potential win for Beijing. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen) is welcomed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of the 11th G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.

Mehmet Ali Ozcan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

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Checks and Balance newsletter: The election of Pope Leo XIV goes beyond American politics

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Checks and Balance newsletter: The election of Pope Leo XIV goes beyond American politics

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Germany’s economy chief Reiche sets out roadmap to end turmoil

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09 May 2025, Bavaria, Gmund Am Tegernsee: Katherina Reiche (CDU), Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, takes part in the Ludwig Erhard Summit. Representatives from business, politics, science and the media are taking part in the three-day summit. Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa (Photo by Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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Germany needs to take more risks and boost its stagnant economy with a decade of investment in infrastructure, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche said Friday.

“The next decade will be the decade of infrastructure investments in bridges, in energy infrastructure, in storage, in maritime infrastructure… telecommunication. And for this, we need speed. We need speed and investments, and we need private capital,” Reiche told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on the sidelines of the Tegernsee summit.

While 10% of investments could be taken care of with public money, the remaining 90% relied on the private sector, she said.

The newly minted economy minister also addressed regulation coming from Brussels, warning that it could hinder companies from investments and start-ups from growing if it is too restrictive. Germany has had to learn that investments comes with risks “and we have to kind of be open for taking more risks,” she said.

Watch CNBC's full interview with German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche

“This country needs an economic turnaround. After two years of recessions the previous government had to announce again [a] zero growth year for 2025 and we really have to work on this. So on the top of the agenda is an investor booster,” the minister added.

Lowering energy prices, stabilizing the security of energy supply and reducing bureaucracy were among the key points on the agenda, Reiche said.

Germany’s economy contracted slightly on an annual basis in both 2023 and 2024 and the quarterly gross domestic product has been flipping between growth and contraction for over two years now, just about managing to avoid a technical recession. Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2025 showed a 0.2% expansion.

Forecasts do not suggest much of a reprieve from the sluggishness, with the now former German government last month saying it still expects the economy to stagnate this year.

This is despite a major fiscal U-turn announced earlier this year, which included changes to the country’s long-standing debt rules to allow for additional defense spending and a 500-billion-euro ($562.4 billion) infrastructure package.

Several of Germany’s key industries are under pressure. The auto industry for example is dealing with stark competition from China and now faces tariffs, while issues in housebuilding and infrastructure have been linked to higher costs and bureaucratic hurdles.

Trade is also a key pillar for the German economy and therefore uncertainty from U.S. President Donald Trump’s changing tariff policies are weighing heavily on the outlook.

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Andrew Bailey on why UK-U.S. trade deal won’t end uncertainty

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Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey attends the central bank’s Monetary Policy Report press conference at the Bank of England, in the City of London, on May 8, 2025.

Carlos Jasso | Afp | Getty Images

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told CNBC on Thursday that the U.K. was heading for more economic uncertainty, despite the country being the first to strike a trade agreement with the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff regime.

“The tariff and trade situation has injected more uncertainty into the situation… There’s more uncertainty now than there was in the past,” Bailey told CNBC in an interview.

“A U.K.-U.S. trade agreement is very welcome in that sense, very welcome. But the U.K. is a very open economy,” he continued.

That means that the impact from tariffs on the U.K. economy comes not just from its own trade relationship with Washington, but also from those of the U.S. and the rest of the world, he said.

“I hope that what we’re seeing on the U.K.-U.S. trade side will be the first of many, and it will be repeated by a whole series of trade agreements, but we have to see that happen of course, and where it actually ends up.”

“Because, of course, we are looking at tariff levels that are probably higher than they were beforehand.”

Trump unveils United Kingdom trade deal, first since ‘reciprocal’ tariff pause

In Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Report released Thursday, the word “uncertainty” was used 41 times across its 97 pages, up from 36 times in February, according to a CNBC tally.

The U.K. central bank cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Thursday, taking its key rate to 4.25%. The decision was highly divided among the seven members of its Monetary Policy Committee, with five voting for the 25 basis point cut, two voting to hold rates and two voting to reduce by a larger 50 basis points.

Bailey said that while some analysts had perceived the rate decision as more hawkish than expected — in other words, leaning toward holding rates elevated than slashing them rapidly — he was not surprised by the close vote.

“What it reflects is that there are two sides, there are risks on both sides here,” he told CNBC.

“We could get a much more severe weakness of demand than we were expecting, that could then pass through to a weaker outlook for inflation than we were expecting.”

“There’s a risk on the other side that we could get some combination of more persistence in the inflation effects that are gradually working their way through the system,” such as in wages and energy, while “supply capacity in the economy is weaker,” he said.

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