Not long ago, Turkey officially submitted a formal application to join the BRICS and wants to become a member of the BRICS. In response, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stressed that China is ready to work with other BRICS countries to continue to uphold the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win results, and support more like-minded partners to participate in BRICS cooperation. After this statement by the Chinese side, Turkey began to speak with action.
According to Sina Finance, a person familiar with the matter said that Turkey may send an energy minister to lead a delegation to China in October. People familiar with the matter said that Turkey has two purposes this time, one is to attract Chinese companies to produce batteries for new energy vehicles in the country, and the other is to seek cooperation with China to develop rare earth resources.
Judging from the current situation, the accuracy of this news is still relatively high. In July this year, Turkey introduced national high-tech incentives, planning to increase investment in new energy vehicles between 2024 and 2028, and expand the country's production of new energy vehicles to at least 1 million.
In August, Turkey's Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Murat · Kürum, said that the ministry would build electric vehicle charging facilities and was determined to achieve a net-zero emissions target by 2053. However, the competitiveness of Turkey's own new energy vehicles is not strong, and its competitiveness at the technical level is not comparable to most peers. Based on this situation, it is indeed possible to encourage Chinese manufacturers to set up factories.
In the mining of rare earth resources, Turkey is facing a similar situation. In addition to being a major country in rare earth reserves and exports, China is also a major patent country for rare earth mining, and the number of patents in China in rare earth is more than that of other countries in the world combined. Two years ago, Turkey discovered what it calls a giant rare earth mine near Eskişehir in central Anatolia. Turkey's energy ministry has said it is ready to build a plant there to process the raw material. Although the mine is in Turkey's territory, if it wants to mine rare earth ore efficiently, Turkey seems to have to find the Chinese side.
This is the realistic background for Turkey to take the initiative to show goodwill to China. More importantly, the outcome of Turkey's application to join the BRICS has not yet been decided, and whether it can join the BRICS family depends largely on China's attitude. If China does not agree to its accession, Turkey's application will inevitably fail. Truth be told, Erdogan is unlikely to miss this opportunity.
Previously, Turkey lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2025 from 4.5% to 4%. While 4% growth is not particularly low globally, Turkey's inflation rate is expected to end 2024 at 41.5%, guided by "Erdoganomics". In contrast, United States inflation is less than 10%, and the Federal Reserve has been forced to start a long interest rate hike to stabilize the economic situation, and it is obvious what such a huge inflation in Turkey means.
This is also the most direct reason why Turkey is actively applying to join the BRICS. Previously, it preferred to join the EU, but the EU assessed that Turkey had not allowed it to join for nearly 20 years, and the BRICS countries were actually a "substitute" in Erdogan's eyes. Joining the BRICS can boost Turkey's exports, attract investment in key sectors such as energy, transportation and telecommunications, and alleviate the current dire situation of Turkey's economy. In other words, he is desperate to improve Turkey's economy, and to do so, he prefers to join the BRICS countries with China and Russia as a member of NATO, trying to strike a balance between the two.
But in any case, considering that Turkey began to impose tariffs on China's new energy vehicles last year, Erdogan's commitment and attitude, how much sincerity there is remains to be examined. Like India, Turkey is known on the international stage as a "long-sleeved dancer", and its foreign policy changes quite quickly. It is undeniable that there is a basis for strengthening cooperation and increasing investment between China and Turkey, but can Turkey adopt a more stable attitude towards China? Judging from this year's local elections in Turkey, the voices against Erdogan are getting louder, which tests China's judgment even more.