BRICS+ and the age of multipolarity: Why Turkey and Saudi Arabia remain cautious

FIIA Briefing Paper, FIIA Publications
03/2025
Toni Alaranta looking at the camera and smiling. He has a long brown hair and he is wearing a black polo shirt and a dark grey suit.
Toni Alaranta
Senior Research Fellow
Portrait of Mohammed Hadi with a slight smile, wearing a navy suit jacket, a white dress shirt with the top button undone, and a breast pocket handkerchief. He is positioned slightly sideways to the camera.
Mohammed Hadi
Research Fellow

BRICS+ is an international platform representing the attempt by non-Western emerging economies to seek influence and independence from the West. It is currently facing uncertainty regarding its scope and future structure.

Turkey’s expressed desire to join is part of its efforts to diversify its political and economic relations and gain a more autonomous position, while retaining key institutional ties with the West.

Saudi Arabia has already been invited to join but has played a waiting game to secure a comprehensive security pact with the US, while simultaneously developing its economic relations with the BRICS+ countries.

The strategic ambiguity surrounding Turkey’s and Saudi Arabia’s BRICS+ membership may not only indicate deliberate policy choices but also reflect uncertainties arising from systemic transformation and increasing multipolarity.

Up