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Indonesia should approach BRICS with caution
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(L to R) Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gedion Timothewos, Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono and South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ronald Lamola pose for the family photo at Rio de Janeiro's Itamaraty Palace during the first meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 28, 2025. Senior diplomats from BRICS countries met on Monday in Brazil to present a united front in the face of threats emerging from US President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies. (AFP/Pablo Porciuncula)
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s the BRICS foreign ministers meeting concluded without a joint statement portending internal rifts, experts suggest that Indonesia, as the bloc’s newest and nonaligned member, should tread carefully as it navigates deepening global divides.
With BRICS having yet to prove itself as a united front, Jakarta should continue to rely on more trusted multilateral platforms such as ASEAN if it aims to assert its position on contentious global items, they added.
Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Sugiono jetted off to Rio de Janeiro to make his debut appearance at BRICS’ ministerial-level meeting, a two-day occasion initially expected to produce a joint statement criticizing various Western global policies.
These ranged from calls to reform multilateral systems seen as favoring the Global North to opposition to Washington’s recent adoption of the so-called “reciprocal tariff” policy”.
The event, at which Sugiono asserted Indonesia’s top foreign policy priorities including peace in Gaza and increasing access to funding for developing countries, failed to reach a consensus on Wednesday, producing only a chair statement from Brazil.
“The ministers voiced serious concerns about the rise of unjustified unilateral protectionist measures inconsistent with [World Trade Organization] rules, including indiscriminate raising of reciprocal tariffs and non-tariff measures such as the abuse of green policies for protectionist purposes,” Brazil’s statement said, falling short of mentioning the United States.
Read also: Indonesia calls for stronger cooperation at BRICS summit
