JAKARTA: Indonesia announced on Tuesday its acceptance into the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, vowing to strengthen cooperation with countries of the Global South.<\/p>\n
Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group expanded last year with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE.<\/p>\n
Morphing into the most powerful geopolitical forum outside of the Western world, BRICS now accounts for about 48 percent of the world\u2019s population and more than 37 percent of the global economy.<\/p>\n
Rolliansyah Soemirat, spokesperson for Indonesia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Indonesia is committed to contributing to the agendas discussed by BRICS, which include economic resilience, tech cooperation and public health.<\/p>\n
\u201cBRICS is an important platform for Indonesia to strengthen South-South cooperation and to ensure that the voices and aspirations of Global South countries will be represented in the global decision-making process,\u201d Soemirat said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia\u2019s accession had been approved by BRICS leaders in August 2023, but the world\u2019s fourth-most populous country opted to formally join the bloc after the formation of the newly elected government following last year\u2019s elections. Its accession was welcomed by the government of Brazil, which holds the group\u2019s rotating presidency in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the largest economy and most populous nation in Southeast Asia, Indonesia shares with other BRICS members the support for the reform of the global governance institutions and contributes significantly to the deepening of Global South cooperation,\u201d Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Brazil holds the BRICS presidency this year under the theme \u201cEnhancing Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance\u201d and will host the annual leaders\u2019 summit in Rio de Janeiro in July.<\/p>\n
Indonesia\u2019s interest in joining BRICS is likely a part of the government\u2019s drive to attract more foreign investment, said Muhammad Waffaa Kharisma, researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe move is to do with seeking opportunities to expand sources of investment from a group of countries that do not force Indonesia to choose sides or leave traditional partnerships with the West,\u201d Kharisma told Arab News.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, this outcome is not guaranteed,\u201d he said. \u201cThe investment patterns of BRICS countries have not shown a clear tendency to prioritize or politically favor fellow members. There is no assurance that Indonesia\u2019s investments will increase significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining BRICS may also be a way for Indonesia to showcase the look of a \u201cnew global order,\u201d Kharisma added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSymbolically, it is a signal from a country like Indonesia, which has benefitted from the West-led order all this time but wants to integrate even more (into) the global order, that it is seeking \u2018alternatives\u2019 should the West-led orders become \u2026 less friendly to developing countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JAKARTA: Indonesia announced on Tuesday its acceptance into the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, vowing to strengthen cooperation with countries of the Global South. Initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the group expanded last year with the accession of Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE. Morphing into the most powerful geopolitical forum …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75345,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75334\/revisions\/75345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}