BRICS Is Growing: Indonesia Became a Full Member in January 2025
The extended bloc represents 41% of Global GDP (PPP) and nearly half of world population
The BRICS+ economic alliance continues to expand. The new year began with Indonesia formally joining the bloc as its tenth full member despite the alliance announcing in October 2024 that all new memberships would be paused.
BRICS includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia has not officially moved forward with its membership. The extended economic alliance makes up half the world population and 41.4 percent of global GDP (PPP).
Indonesia spent over a decade pursuing accession to the bloc. It expressed interest in joining as early as 2010, the same year South Africa became a member of the organization. According to the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Indonesia's candidacy was initially endorsed by BRICS leaders in August 2023 but the country’s leadership chose to postpone its formal accession to the bloc until the formation of its newly-elected government. President Prabowo Subianto took office in October 2024 and the country’s representatives confirmed its readiness to join during the summit in Kazan, Russia.
On Tuesday, January 7th, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it views the BRICS+ membership as:
“a strategic step to improve the collaborations and cooperation with other developing nations, based on the principle of equality, mutual respect, and sustainable development. This achievement shows Indonesia’s increasingly active role in global issues and commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation to create a global structure that is more inclusive and fair.”
Indonesia’s membership marks an important development for the Global South as it signals the bloc’s prospective further expansion into Southeast Asia (will Malaysia be next?) as well as its strengthening role among the global majority despite President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose 100 percent tariffs on any country that chooses to transact in a currency other than the United States dollar.
Besides being the world's fourth-most populous nation, it is home to the largest population and economy in Southeast Asia. Indonesia ranks 16th in GDP globally and boasts of having well-established commercial ties with the founding members of the bloc, primarily China. China is Indonesia's largest trading partner.
Besides the obvious benefits associated with the expansion of cross-border trade and investments, Indonesia’s membership brings a new twist to the geopolitical tensions in Southeast Asia as the United States increasingly views the region as its national interest.
In mid-2024, the Council on Foreign Relations wrote a revealing article explaining that the United States is interested in the Indo-Pacific region, using its terminology, because it views it as its national security interests:
For some, with war raging in Europe, NATO’s only concerns should be supporting Ukraine and deterring Russia from attacking alliance members. Others, however, believe that NATO has a role to play in bolstering deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and preventing Chinese adventurism in the region. The path the alliance chooses in the coming years could have significant geopolitical consequences.
From the perspective of Jakarta, what remains to be seen is if it can still maintain its friendship with the West while facilitating stronger ties with the global majority. This year is promising to be quite eventful as more than 30 countries have formally submitted applications to become full members. Among them are Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Malaysia. Although Turkiye’s and Azerbaijani memberships are likely not in the cards this year, it appears that Malaysia would be a logical next step towards the BRICS expansion in the region and beyond.
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Present geopolitical realities have the established West united in the desire to preserve its advantages against the relatively poor rest-of-the-world.
This is in the process of fracturing into the U.S./U.K. economic/military power bloc versus a very loose, largely non-aligned bloc of everyone who has had a gutful of imperialistic bullying.
BRICS is just an early manifestation of this process.
Adroit diplomacy by the U.S. could probably halt the international realignment, but I believe that the U.S.A. lacks the ability and self-awareness to head off its impending isolation.
With the economic turmoil I can see coming, this will make for a very interesting next few years.
Hi Lena Indonesia has the largest world reverses of Nickel ,which is use in electric batteries (EV)
does not want to sell Nickel ore ,instead it wants to sell the finished product which will create jobs in Indonesia and will receive six times more profit than Nickel ore ,what is going on now with the Trump gang ,is they known they lost the war with Russia , and the BRICS system ,so the
big move is to go after the Artic Resorces ,(largest Resorces in the World ) Russia has 50 % , Trump wants ,Greenland ,Canada which will give him @40 % also he wants Panama to control
the choke points and in the Artic. Putin and Xi are making another Blunder by not get Venezuelan into the BRICS and SCO to give Venezuelan military protection Venezuelan has the
world largest oil reserves and many other resources , Trump will go after Venezuelan and North
and South America countries ,including Mexico.
Stalin in WW2 defeat the greatest Germany Army of over two million men from dumbas ,Ukraine
to Berlin Germany in Six mouths time, Putin has not even conquer Dumbas in almost three years.
Russian central banker Elviea Nabiullina has a 23 % rate on the Russian Ruble ,she is actually
causing the inflation in Russia.
I can not understand Putin's moves ,Is he being blackmailed or other reasons ?
I have to agree with Dr. Craig Paul Roberts and John Hilmer of Dancing with the Bear.
one Blunder after another since 2006 and especially from 2014 the USA Inc coup d etat of Ukraine.
Thomas