Turkey is signalling that its foreign policy may become increasingly multi-directional. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated Ankara would consider deeper involvement with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the security and political grouping associated with China and Russia — significant precisely because Turkey remains a NATO member.
Turkey has spent years balancing relationships with Western and non-Western powers: close economic ties with Europe, military obligations through NATO, and substantial diplomatic and economic relations with Russia, China and countries across Asia and the Middle East. Erdogan's position suggests Ankara does not see those relationships as mutually exclusive — a stance that will keep testing NATO's patience the more concrete Turkey's SCO engagement becomes.
Turkey has flirted with SCO membership before, and has long used its position bridging Europe and Asia as diplomatic leverage — buying Russian S-400 missile systems as a NATO member, mediating Russia-Ukraine grain talks, and maintaining trade with Iran despite Western sanctions pressure.