EP calls Erdoğan's Shanghai proposal ‘irresponsible'

Senior European Parliament (EP) members have called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's proposal for membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) “irresponsible.”

British Liberal Baroness Sarah Ludford and Czech Socialist Libor Roucek underlined that while the proposal was itself taken very negatively in Brussels, the timing was also very unfortunate as it coincided with a period when Russia strongly pressured Ukraine not to sign an association agreement with the EU and was eventually successful. Russia is one of the founding members of the SCO.
During his recent visit to Moscow, Erdoğan asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to admit Turkey into the SCO and pave the way for Turkey to get rid of the "EU inconvenience." After his return to Turkey, Erdoğan repeated his call for SCO membership, making it clear he was serious about the issue.

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