Erdogan’s Turkey, a Nato member, requests Brics membership alongside China, Russia and India

Turkey has submitted a request to join the Brics group of major emerging market nations, the spokesman of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party said on Tuesday.

If admitted, it would become the first Nato member in the group, which sees itself as a counterweight to the Western-led global order.

“Our president has many times stated that we want to become a Brics member. The process is now under way,” said Omar Celik, spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

After starting in the early 2000s as investor shorthand for the emerging nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the four nations created the BRIC international forum in 2009.

South Africa joined a year later, making it Brics, and Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined at the beginning of this year.