"Turkiye’s prospect of membership in the Organization does not in any way mean breaking away from one bloc or turning our backs on the West. Our goal is to increase our weight with a 360-degree vision," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.

Axar.az reports, citing Anadolu, that speaking to reporters aboard the presidential plane after returning from the SCO Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Erdogan said Ankara seeks to pursue a broad-based foreign policy.

Erdogan said the Bishkek summit demonstrated Turkiye’s determination to diversify its economic, political and strategic options.

He noted that Turkiye has commercial and economic relations with SCO member states across a vast geography stretching from China and Central Asia to Russia and South Asia.

Erdogan added that Turkiye has made significant progress in its relations with the organization in recent years as part of its multidimensional foreign policy.

"Turkiye is a country capable of developing balanced relations with both the West and the East and deepening its ties accordingly,” he said, adding that Ankara sees the possibility of further advancing its relations with the SCO.