June 7, 2024
JAKARTA – Indonesia’s ambassadors to India and Russia say authorities there hope to see Southeast Asia’s largest economy join BRICS to give the group of major emerging economies a stronger voice on the global stage.
Indonesian Ambassador to India Ina Krisnamurthi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that Indonesia had shown its leadership through roles such as Group of 20 president for 2022, ASEAN chair for 2023 and host of the recent World Water Forum.
“India has hope that Indonesia could join [BRICS] because India sees Indonesia as one of the powers in the Indo-Pacific,” Ina said.
Similarly, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Jose Tavares spoke of potential benefits of membership.
“BRICS is a forum in its own right,” Jose told the Post on Wednesday, adding that it offered an alternative to dependence on established institutions.
“People need security against these [issues], as well as security, sovereignty and control over finance and trade,” Jose said.
However, both Ina and Jose noted there had been no official push from the Indonesian government to revisit the idea of joining BRICS.
BRICS, representing a combined 25 percent of global GDP, has pledged to support the developing world and offer an alternative to the world order dominated by wealthy Western nations.
The bloc has evolved from the time of its initial acronym, referring to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with the hope of bringing in new members from other emerging economies.
At the 15th BRICS Summit in August of last year, the group agreed to admit Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Turkey also expressed interest in joining the group, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
However, Indonesia opted not to join at last year’s BRICS summit. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the archipelago was in no rush to join the group and that his administration was still weighing the pros and cons of membership.
In a statement published after he attended the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, President Jokowi said Indonesia had no interest in applying for membership and that his presence at the meeting was to boost solidarity among the world’s developing nations.
“In terms of economic considerations, we are still studying it more deeply,” Edi Pambudi, undersecretary for coordination of international economic cooperation at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, told the Post on Thursday.
BRICS set up its own lending institution in 2015 called the New Development Bank. The bank claims to have approved a little over US$30 billion worth of projects in BRICS countries. Some see this as a move to provide alternatives to Western-dominated institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).