Erdogan says Turkey's SCO outreach does not signal a shift away from the West
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan affirmed that Turkey's pursuit of full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will not entail abandoning its Western partnerships, while calling for a swift, peaceful end to the Russia-Ukraine war and greater Black Sea maritime security.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters aboard his return flight from a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan that seeking deeper ties with the East does not mean turning its back on Western allies. He said Turkey's aspiration to become a full SCO member – a bloc that includes Russia, China, India, Iran and several Central Asian states – should be viewed as complementary to existing relationships.
During the summit, Erdogan met one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussing expanded nuclear cooperation. Both leaders expressed a desire for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to end peacefully as quickly as possible. Erdogan also highlighted the need for a permanent mechanism to protect commercial shipping in the Black Sea, noting that such security would help avert a resurgence of the grain crisis that affected global food supplies.
Turkey previously facilitated a 2022 grain export deal that reopened Ukrainian ports and allowed the movement of Russian grain and fertilizer, a pact later abandoned by Moscow. The SCO, founded in 2001, is often described as a counterweight to U.S. influence, though its specific objectives remain broad.