Indonesia Becomes a Full-Fledged BRICS Member

BRAZIL: On January 6th, 2025 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil (a country that holds the chairmanship in the BRICS this year) declared that Indonesia has joined the BRICS bloc as a full-fledged member.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China has officially congratulated Indonesia on becoming a member of the BRICS grouping. China also noted the active role played by Indonesia in the development of the BRICS+ format that served as a key driver of subsequent BRICS expansion and outreach to the broader community of Global South nations.

Both Brazil’s and China’s statements referred to the importance of Indonesia in the closer cooperation of the economies of the Global South. Indonesia, being the fourth largest economy in the world by population is also a member of the G20 and is in the top-20 of the world’s largest countries by GDP.

The expansion in the BRICS core that took place in 2023 during the BRICS summit in South Africa was put on hold in 2024 as the BRICS economies focused on the creation of the new partnership belt.

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Indonesia became one of the BRICS partner countries from the start of 2025, but in less than a week its earlier request to join BRICS as a full-fledged member was granted, with Indonesia thus becoming the tenth economy to join the grouping.

There are several implications of Indonesia’s entry into BRICS in the beginning of 2025 for the world economy.

Firstly, Indonesia’s membership translates into BRICS expanding into one of the most dynamic regions of the world economy, namely Southeast Asia – before 2025 this was essentially the only major region of the Global South without BRICS core membership.