The year 2025 is a critical year in which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has strengthened his position on the international stage and solidified Türkiye’s role as an increasingly rising strategic actor in a multi-centered, multi-polar, and multi-civilizational world order.
President Erdoğan’s attendance as a “guest of honor” at the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit hosted by China, and his strategic meetings there with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, demonstrated Türkiye’s increasing influence in regional and global balances, going down in history as a significant diplomatic move that strengthened Türkiye’s ties with the Global South. Immediately after the SCO summit, Erdoğan traveled to the USA for the United Nations General Assembly, bringing Türkiye to the forefront of global issues. Besides this, the most striking diplomatic offensive was the summit President Erdoğan held with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Meetings with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin: Multi-Centered Diplomacy
The meetings President Erdoğan held with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit are a clear indicator of Türkiye’s increasingly strengthening position in a multi-polar world and his mastery of leader-to-leader diplomacy.
Through its participation in the SCO Summit, Türkiye showed that it follows a diplomatic line that balances its proximity to the Western bloc. In Erdoğan’s meetings with Xi Jinping and Putin, regional security, economic cooperation, and the importance of energy corridors were emphasized. Cooperation agreements signed under the umbrella of the SCO accelerated Türkiye’s integration with Asia.
President Erdoğan’s 2025 diplomacy route served as an indicator that Türkiye is developing its relations not only with the West but also with the Global South and Global East simultaneously and in a balanced manner. The meetings and partnerships established with China and Russia at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit deepened Türkiye’s regional and global integration. Türkiye becoming a central logistic and economic corridor, particularly in the New Silk Road projects developed under China’s leadership, contributed greatly to economic growth. At the same time, cooperation projects expanded in the field of energy with Russia increased Türkiye’s energy supply security while serving as an important element in ensuring regional stability.
Erdoğan-Trump Summit at the White House: Door to a New Era
Immediately after the SCO summit, President Erdoğan traveled to the USA for the UN General Assembly, raising Türkiye’s voice on global issues. In his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, Erdoğan emphasized Türkiye’s responsibilities and contributions to critical global issues. Subsequently, he held bilateral contacts with the leaders of countries such as France, Canada, and Vietnam within the scope of the UN General Assembly.
After these meetings in New York, Erdoğan met with Trump in Washington. The most important result of the White House summit was the initiation of a new era in Türkiye-USA relations. This relationship, which had long remained in the shadow of differences, was reshaped on the basis of mutual understanding and cooperation following the Erdoğan-Trump meeting. The visit to the USA carried great importance for the normalization of relations and the opening of new areas of cooperation at a critical period when some tensions were being experienced between the two countries. This allowed Türkiye to use its flexibility and balance policy more effectively on the foreign policy front.
Erdoğan’s balanced approach was an important step in Türkiye’s transformation process from a regional power into a global actor. The meetings Erdoğan held with the leaders of many countries, primarily China, Russia, the USA, and France, revealed Türkiye’s multi-faceted strategy in diplomacy. While these developments strengthened Türkiye’s relations with the West, they demonstrated the success of its multi-polar strategy through the ties established with Asia in the context of SCO members. This success shown by Erdoğan in leader diplomacy became one of the most important indicators of Türkiye’s increasingly rising power in the international arena.
Conclusion: Türkiye’s Increasing Global Influence
The year 2025 is one in which President Erdoğan has opened a new era in leader diplomacy and crowned Türkiye’s increasing effectiveness in a multi-centered world with concrete successes. The cooperation agreements made at the SCO summit, proceeding in parallel with strategic moves through the meetings at the UN and the White House, have ensured Türkiye’s strengthening in regional and global terms. Türkiye’s multi-faceted leader diplomacy has raised the potential to have a say in international balances in the future. Erdoğan’s leader diplomacy from Asia to America can be evaluated as the beginning of a new geopolitical era.
Türkiye’s geographical location, economic potential, and increasingly developing diplomatic capacity have begun to be appreciated more by global powers alongside Erdoğan’s leader diplomacy. The diplomatic contacts Erdoğan established simultaneously with both the East and the West revealed Türkiye’s multi-lateral, proactive, and strategic foreign policy model.
Through the SCO summit, the UN General Assembly contacts, and the White House visits, Türkiye under Erdoğan’s leadership has secured a strong place for itself in the multi-polar world order. Erdoğan’s leader diplomacy marks the beginning of a period in which Türkiye expands its sphere of influence in economic and cultural fields alongside geopolitics. Thanks to Erdoğan’s leader diplomacy, Türkiye has become an active player in ensuring international peace and stability while undertaking a mediator role in regional crises. Along with increasing cooperation with China and Russia, the entry of relations with the USA into a normalization process will accelerate Türkiye’s economic growth, and partnerships in the defense industry and technology will increase the country’s global competitiveness.
President Erdoğan’s leader diplomacy has carried Türkiye to the position of a respected, effective, and strong leader in the arena of global politics and economy. This can be evaluated as a clear sign that Türkiye will have more of a say in international decision-making processes in the coming years. This new leadership role of Türkiye strengthens the potential to offer critical contributions to ensuring international peace, economic and technological cooperation, and regional stability in the future, and increases Türkiye’s weight in global politics.
Photograph: Anadolu Ajansı
