President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's potential involvement in the BRICS and ASEAN groups of nations was not an alternative to its NATO membership, and instead provided economic cooperation opportunities, broadcaster NTV and others reported on Thursday.
Turkey, a NATO member, has in recent months voiced interest in joining BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) groups, both of which include China and Russia. It has also been keen to deepen ties with the ASEAN grouping of Southeast Asian nations.
This has stirred U.S. and European fears that Ankara may be straying from its traditionally Western geopolitical orientation despite repeated denials from Ankara.
Speaking to Turkish journalists in New York before leaving the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said Turkey, which is also a European Union candidate, could not determine its future based on its stalled EU membership bid and had to deepen its relations with all actors and regions.
"BRICS and ASEAN are structures that, for us, particularly boast opportunities to improve our economic cooperation," he was cited as saying.
"Being involved in these structures does not mean abandoning NATO. We do not think that this alliance and cooperation are an alternative to one another."