Turkey is looking for friends all over the world
Turkey’s move towards a multidimensional foreign policy has resulted in its involvement in several global and regional organizations with the aim of protecting its interests.
This quest coincides with Ankara’s growing dissatisfaction with the West, so its policy of engagement could be interpreted as an attempt to balance Turkey’s relations with Western organizations such as the EU. and NATO.
Turkey’s complicated relationship with these two organizations over the past decade has prompted Turkish policymakers to craft a new vision of their place in the world – a vision reflected in their statements of “winks” to other regional organizations seeking to grow and introduce alternative global governance amid the perceived failure of Western systems to produce tangible solutions to global problems. Turkey’s talks with other regional institutions focus on challenges facing humanity and issues related to global governance, such as migration, climate change, poverty and terrorism.
Ankara has repeatedly pledged to continue its efforts to strengthen cooperation with other countries and relations with their regional institutions. This was evident when Purnima Anand, President of the International Forum of Emerging Economies of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), revealed that Turkey was preparing to apply. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a guest at the organization’s Johannesburg summit in 2018, when he said: “I wish they would take the necessary steps to let us in.”
In August, Erdogan said Russian President Vladimir Putin had invited him to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan in September. Although Erdogan has repeatedly expressed his intentions to use this organization as a counterweight to the West, Turkey has never participated in its meetings. If Erdogan did so now, it would send a clear message to the West, as one of the group’s main goals is to establish a new international political and economic order.
Last week, Turkey was granted observer status in the Andean Community, a leading economic integration organization of which Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia are members. Economic and trade cooperation is the driving force behind Turkey’s engagement with the Latin America and Caribbean region.
In April, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela during a seven-day tour of Latin America. Touting growing ties with Latin America, Çavuşoğlu stressed the importance Turkey places on relations with these countries. “The fact that we did not cancel this visit, which was planned before the war in Ukraine, despite the many problems in our region, is a mark of the importance we attach to this region,” he said. he declares.
Several agreements have been signed, with economic cooperation being the top priority. Turkey has two major companies bidding on contracts to build eight corvettes for the Colombian Navy. Colombia is Turkey’s second largest trading partner in Latin America, after Brazil. Ankara has also increased the number of its embassies in Latin American countries from six to 18, and trade with the region has increased from around $1 billion to $15 billion.
Turkey’s engagement with several regional organizations does not necessarily mean that it is turning its back on the West, but it is clear that Ankara aims to diversify its economic and security opportunities with various partners on behalf of its national interests. .
• Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst specializing in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the authors in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arab News
