On the up

Indonesia's joining BRICS as a full member underlies its growing importance and influence

The announcement by Brazil, current chair of the BRICS, that Indonesia has joined the group as a full member underlines the upward trajectory of what is now the leading platform for the Global South. Although the group underwent a major expansion (its first since 2011 when South Africa joined) in 2024, with the addition of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, and several nations were admitted as "partner countries" after the 16th summit of the group held in October 2024 in Kazan, Russia, Indonesia's membership has a special significance.

Indonesia is, of course, the fourth-largest nation in the world, with a population of 280 million; its GDP of $1.4 trillion makes it the eighth-largest economy in purchasing power parity terms. It thus adds considerable heft to a group that already casts a large economic shadow, whose dynamism is undisputable, and whose intra-group trade has gained great momentum in the past years.

Over the past decade, Indonesia has undergone an economic boom, growing at an average of 5 percent a year (if we omit the COVID-19 pandemic period). China has played a key role, given the Belt and Road Initiative's emphasis both on physical and digital connectivity, a feature especially critical in a country with such a fragmented geography.

One flagship project is Southeast Asia's first high-speed railway, a Chinese-built, 142-kilometer railway line from Jakarta to Bandung, built at a cost of $7.3 billion, which was inaugurated in October 2023.The railway has cut travel time between the two cities from three hours to forty minutes.

Some years ago, defying conventional wisdom, Indonesia banned all exports of raw nickel. Though many predicted this would lead to a slowdown in foreign investment in the sector, the opposite happened. Nickel production has skyrocketed, from 130,000 metric tons in 2015 to 1.8 million tons in 2023, about half of the world's production. Nickel, vital in the process of green energy transition and electric vehicles production, has turned out to be decisive in propelling the country's industrialization, something in which Chinese car companies such as Chery and Wuling play a key role, and of which the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park in Central Sulawesi province, with its large number of Chinese factories, is exhibiting an impressive outcome.

Yet, it is a measure of the scale of Indonesian ambitions, that it wants to scale up economic growth even further, to 8 percent a year. The plan is to make Indonesia a developed nation by 2045, as per the Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision. For this, joining the BRICS and thus strengthening ties with some of the biggest and fastest growing nations in the world are an important step. Quite apart from growing its trade and investment links with member states, it will allow Indonesia to partake even more of the many instruments of collective financial statecraft available within the group, such as the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, or with other entities and frameworks in which China plays a key role, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the BRI.

That said, it would be a mistake to limit the significance of Indonesia's joining the BRICS strictly to economic factors, however important they may be. Indonesia was, of course, one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The legendary conference of the Afro-Asian group that originated what was to become the Non-Aligned Movement was held in Bandung in 1955. The Non-Aligned Movement brought together the newly independent nations of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, gave them a sense of belonging, championed the need to stand up for their sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in their affairs, and otherwise articulated the need for a more equitable and fair economic order.

In the new century, Indonesia has embraced with renewed brio the principles of non-alignment. In a world once again struck by global tensions and great power competition, Indonesia has emerged as one of the key voices for the Global South. Revealingly, President Prabowo Subianto's first overseas trip in April 2024, started with a state visit to Beijing, followed by additional ones later the same year to Washington and London, as well as to Lima, to participate in the APEC meeting, and to Rio de Janeiro, to participate in the G20 summit, a range emblematic of this ambitious and capacious foreign policy.

As the BRICS group continues to champion the cause of the Global South and its demands for a more equitable and inclusive world order, one that pays more attention to the very real global challenges of our troubled planet, the voice of Indonesia along with that of China and other Global South countries will act as potent multipliers.

The author is a research professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies, acting director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University and a former Chilean ambassador to China, India and South Africa. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.