Erdogan Says NATO Ally Turkey May Join Russia-China Security Bloc, Denies Turning Its Back On The West

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, September 2, that Turkey is open to full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the bloc led by Russia and China, and that doing so would not mean abandoning the West, according to a transcript of remarks he made to journalists on his flight back from Kyrgyzstan, reported by Al-Monitor and the Jerusalem Post.

"Turkey's prospect of (full) membership to the organization does not imply a breakaway from any other bloc or from the West," Erdogan said.

Erdogan made the comments returning from the SCO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Turkey currently holds "dialogue partner" status rather than full membership, according to Al-Monitor. The SCO's ten full members include Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, according to the Associated Press, carried by Yahoo News.

While in Bishkek, Erdogan held a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin where the two discussed further nuclear cooperation, according to the AP. Both leaders said they hope the war in Ukraine "ends peacefully as soon as possible," Erdogan told reporters.

Erdogan also pressed for a permanent mechanism to protect commercial shipping in the Black Sea, warning of a "resurgence of the grain crisis," according to the AP and the Jerusalem Post. Turkey brokered the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative that let roughly 33 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain reach global markets before Russia withdrew from the deal in 2023, the AP reported. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has reportedly drawn up a new plan for safe grain passage and is in contact with both Moscow and Kyiv, per the Jerusalem Post. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said this week Moscow sees no grounds to revive the original grain agreement.

Competing Interests

Erdogan's SCO comments come three weeks after Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7 with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a NATO-style mutual defense pact that treats an attack on one signatory as an attack on all, according to the Daily Wire. Egypt has reportedly been floated as a possible future member.

President Trump praised the pact in a social media post, calling it a "BIG, BOLD, AND IMPORTANT FIRST STEP" toward a Middle East better able to defend itself, the Daily Wire reported.

Chaim Silberstein, chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy, told the Daily Wire the pact helps Erdogan position Turkey as leader of a "Sunni ring of fire" and cement himself as regional hegemon despite not being an Arab or a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

At the same time Ankara is courting Moscow, Beijing and Riyadh, it's also negotiating with Washington to get back into the F-35 program. Trump said at last month's NATO summit in Ankara that he'd consider selling Turkey the stealth fighters, according to the Daily Wire. Turkey was booted from the F-35 program in 2019 after buying Russia's S-400 missile defense system, over fears the Russian hardware could let Moscow snoop on the American jet's stealth technology. Congress has barred any F-35 transfer to Turkey unless Ankara gets rid of the S-400, and U.S. and Turkish officials are reportedly discussing options like disabling the system or moving it to American-controlled ground.

A NATO member with the alliance's second-largest army is simultaneously seeking closer ties to the two countries NATO exists to counter, while asking Washington to hand over its most advanced fighter jet. Erdogan's insistence that SCO membership "does not imply a breakaway" from NATO may be technically true today, since Turkey isn't a full SCO member yet. But it doesn't answer the harder question: what happens to the F-35 talks, or to America's confidence in sharing sensitive military technology with Ankara, if Turkey actually joins a bloc built as a counterweight to the West.

No timeline has been set for Turkey's potential full SCO membership, and no announcement has been made on the F-35 sale. Both remain open questions Erdogan will have to navigate as he continues courting Washington, Moscow, Beijing and Riyadh all at once.