Numerous reports and social media posts have circulated suggesting that India rejected Turkey’s bid for BRICS membership due to Ankara’s close diplomatic and strategic alignment with Pakistan. These narratives imply that Turkey’s relations with Pakistan influenced India’s stance in the BRICS expansion talks. However, these assertions lack a credible basis and are purely speculative. According to Turkish media reports, the Turkish presidency has debunked the claims.
Initially, the German media outlet ‘BILD‘ reported that India prevented Turkey from joining the BRICS. The reason: Ankara’s good relations with enemy Pakistan! But because BRICS membership requires unanimity, Turkey’s accession would have had no chance. (The report was based on a former Turkish diplomat)
Later, the claims have surfaced on social media. Making a post on X (Formerly Twitter) DD_Geopolitics wrote. India REJECTS Turkey’s BRICS membership bid dues to the latter’s close ties to Pakistan.
Global Eyes News (@GlobeEyeNews) also disseminated the claims and wrote. “India rejects Turkey’s BRICS membership bid due to its close relations with Pakistan”. As of now, the post has received more than 3 million views, 66k likes and a significant number of engagements.
Several other users, influencers and propagandist accounts have also disseminated the same claims. Their posts can be seen here, @ShaykhSulaiman, @stairwayto3dom, @TimesAlgebraIND, @FrontalForce, @Currentreport1, @SprinterFamily, @asadnasir2000, @Elite_OpsX, @etkilihaber,, @ImtiazMadmood, @MeghUpdates, @shafquath.
The truth about the viral claims about BRICS membership, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing the claims came to our notice. Subsequently, we conducted research and analysis about the viral claims and found that these claims were false and baseless.
To verify the claims made by the media outlets and users. We performed a relevant keyword search and found a Turkish media report “Turkiye Today”. According to the report, the Turkish presidency announced that BRICS did not have any expansion talks on its agenda during the Kazan summit. The presidency noted that any report alleging that India blocked Türkiye’s membership is totally baseless.
Bild had quoted Ulgen as saying that India rejected Türkiye’s bid to join BRICS due to Ankara’s close relations with India. In Bild’s report, Ulgen was dubbed as a ‘BRICS insider’ although Ulgen is simply a former Turkish diplomat working for a think-tank.
Ulgen also clarified that the report misrepresented his statements regarding Türkiye’s diplomatic standing. He said, I gave an interview to Bild about BRICS but the news did not include the nuances. India is indeed distant from Turkey but there was no need to veto it. The issue was not voted on. Many other countries besides India are against rapid expansion. There is no consensus on that issue yet.
Therefore, it is evident from verified sources that the claims about India rejecting Turkey’s bid for BRICS membership are false and baseless.
Intent
Media outlets, influencers and propagandists are circulating false and self-invented claims about the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia to set their narrative.
Conclusion
Claim– India rejected Turkey’s bid for BRICS membership due to its close relations with Pakistan.
Fact– The Turkish presidency announced that BRICS did not have any expansion talks on its agenda during the Kazan summit. The presidency noted that any report alleging that India blocked Türkiye’s membership is totally baseless.
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