The future of the BRICS pact

Analysis: Erdogan wants his fingers in both jam jars

The fact that NATO country Turkey wants to join "NATO's opposite pole" BRICs makes many people raise their eyebrows, says SVT's Turkey correspondent Tomas Thorén in an analysis.

It does not violate NATO rules to be in both alliances, but many believe that a Turkish BRICS membership would signal that Ankara is not loyal to NATO.

- But according to Erdogan, it is perfectly fine to be part of both BRICS and NATO. It is even Turkey's strategy to stand with one foot in each camp and gain advantages, says Thorén.

In Foreign Policy, Jorge Heine writes that President Erdogan has had an unusual amount of quarreling with his allies in the West. He points to the obstruction of Swedish membership in NATO and Turkey's clear position against Israel in the Middle East conflict.

At the same time, Turkey has shown that the country is in a unique and very important position to negotiate between the West and the Global South.

"By applying for membership in Brics, Turkey is signaling that the West cannot take that role for granted," he writes. 

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Jan Eliasson on the criticism of Guterres: "Routine measure"

That UN Secretary-General António Guterres is in Russia to participate in the Brics meeting, where, among others, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are present, is a "routine action" in the role of leader. That's what Jan Eliasson, former deputy general secretary of the organization says.

- You meet countries with which you also have problems, he says in P1 Morgon.

Guterres' visit to Russian soil has been criticized, among other things, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

In the interview with the radio, Eliasson says that the UN is in a "state of crisis" due to the two wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.