Moscow has stated that Türkiye’s commitments to the US-led military bloc are not aligned with the values of the Eurasian organization.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Türkiye’s bid to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is incompatible with its membership in NATO.
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a summit of the Eurasian mutual defense group, where his nation holds observer status. Returning home from Kazakhstan, he told reporters that Ankara wants to “further develop” relations with the SCO and its founding members Russia and China. At the NATO leaders’ summit in the US this week, he announced that Türkiye seeks to join the SCO as a permanent member.
Responding to reporters’ inquiries about a potential timeline for Turkish accession, Peskov acknowledged a problem with the proposal.
“There are certain contradictions between Turkish commitments and [its] position on fundamental issues as a NATO member and the worldview formulated in the founding documents of the SCO,” he explained.
He added that the expansion of the SCO is of interest to many nations and remains on its agenda, but there is no specific timeline for accepting new members. Commenting later during a press call on bilateral relations with Türkiye, Peskov said Russia was “open for attempts to reach agreements based on a certain worldview.”
Moscow views NATO as a hostile, aggressive military organization that serves US geopolitical interests and is currently engaged in a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
Despite being a NATO member state, Türkiye has maintained a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict, refusing to impose economic sanctions on Russia and serving as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev on several occasions. Ankara played a role in mediating an initial peace deal in the early stages of the conflict, which Kiev ultimately abandoned in favor of continued fighting. The Russian government believes that the US and its allies, particularly the UK, pressured Ukraine to reject the proposal.
The SCO was founded in 2001 and currently has ten full members: Russia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus. Kazakhstan holds the rotating presidency this year and hosted the leaders of member states on July 3 and 4 in Astana.
One of the key pledges to which SCO members subscribe is not to seek the improvement of their own national security at the expense of the national security of other parties. NATO policy, according to its critics, including Russia, contradicts this principle.