ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey expects to be offered “partner country” status with the BRICS bloc of developing economies, the country’s trade minister said Wednesday.

Turkey requested to join the group as a full member earlier this year with the stated aim of “simultaneously” strengthening its ties with East and West. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the bloc’s summit in Russia last month.

“At the last summit meeting in Kazan, Turkey’s application was considered,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Trade Minister Omer Bolat as telling legislators during a parliamentary committee meeting. “It is understood that they will respond to us (by offering) a partner country status.”

Bolat denied claims that India had blocked Turkey’s full membership in BRICS because of Ankara’s close ties to rival Pakistan.

“There is no question of India vetoing our membership,” Bolat said.

The BRICS alliance was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. It now includes Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

Erdogan, in power for more than two decades, has sought to carve a more independent foreign policy for Turkey and to enhance its global influence. The country, a NATO member, has been frustrated by the lack of progress in its membership talks with the European Union.

BRICS has a stated aim to amplify the voice of major emerging economies to counterbalance what it considers to be the Western-led global order. Its founding members have called for the reform of international institutions like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.