January 9, 2025
jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto moved one step closer to realizing his ambition to make Indonesia an influential country globally as Indonesia became a full member of the BRICS on Monday.
Given that Indonesia is the 16th largest economy, the third largest democracy and the fourth most populous country in the world, this desire is not wrong and its voice deserves respect.
While we agree that joining emerging groupings such as BRICS will increase Indonesia's influence, we also want to remind the President of its consequences, particularly with regard to rising trade and military tensions between China and the United States. Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House later this month, has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on the BRICS if they go ahead with their de-dollarization plan, a target that has attracted more attention country joins.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Indonesia's joining as this year's president of the organization. President Prabowo is expected to attend the Rio de Janeiro summit in July, where member states will discuss “the development of payment means” to facilitate trade among themselves.
Indonesia welcomed its full membership of the BRICS on Tuesday, hailing the development as a “strategic step” in promoting cooperation in the global South to promote a “just and peaceful” world.
Prabowo's predecessor, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, was famously reluctant to join the club because he believed the group's main goal was to weaken the United States. Unlike Jokowi, Prabowo believes his government can benefit economically from the BRICS, although the international community views the BRICS as a group driven by political rather than economic interests.
In fact, at least so far, BRICS has not achieved substantial results for its member countries. Apart from setting up the New Development Bank, a multilateral bank dominated by Chinese capital, the EU has still been unable to demonstrate its commitment to reducing its dependence on the United States.
The BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and currently has 10 official members. Following Indonesia, the other three ASEAN members, namely Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, are also expected to join.
Malaysia, under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, is a good example of a developing country that has maintained good relations with Russia and China while winning over big U.S. tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Elon Musk. A huge investment by the company.
Prabowo chose to advance the Good Neighbor Policy on the back of the country's liberal and active foreign policy. In addition to BRICS, Indonesia also participates in multiple multilateral organizations such as ASEAN, the Group of Twenty (G20), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the binding 15-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) trade group.
Indonesia has also applied to join other organizations, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) led by Japan and Australia. The goal of the BRICS is to resist the dominance of the United States, while the main goal of the CCTPP (formerly known as TPP) is to counter China's economic hegemony.
CPTPP is a trade agreement for trade and investment liberalization among 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States left the European Union. China applied in 2021 but has not yet been approved.
Indonesia has also begun the process of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is seen as a move to adhere to Western economic and trade principles to gain wider access to global supply chains.
Do not forget that the primary goal of liberal and active diplomacy is to serve national interests, especially in the economic, political and security fields. The potential pitfalls of pursuing international outspokenness must be acknowledged, especially when such actions may harm national interests and place Indonesia in a precarious position within the complex dynamics of global power competition.
We hope that Indonesia can benefit from BRICS and other multilateral organizations, but it must also be prepared to bear all the consequences. There is an old saying in Indonesia: “If you play with fire, you will get burned, and if you play with water, you will get wet.”
