JakartaPost/AFP-Aug 21
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo departed for South Africa on Sunday to attend the BRICS summit in Johannesburg amid speculation that the country could join the group as its latest member. The meeting, which brings together major emerging economies countries led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will be held for three days starting Tuesday. “Indonesia has been invited to the BRICS summit and of course in between the BRICS summit there will be meetings with other world leaders,” Jokowi told reporters ahead of his departure. The trip is Jokowi ‘s first to Africa as leader of South East Asia’s biggest economy. He said earlier in the week that his government had not decided whether or not Indonesia would join BRICS. The group, formally launched in 2009, seeks to tame Western economic domination in global affairs. It represents 23 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 42 percent of the world’s population. Aside from attending the BRICS summit, Jokowi said he would also visit Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique to strengthen cooperation. Tanzania and Kenya opened embassies in Jakarta last year, while Mozambique is the first African country to sign a Preferential Trade Agreement with Indonesia. Representing billions of people across three continents, with economies undergoing varying levels of growth, the BRICS share one thing in common – disdain for a world order they see as serving the interests of rich Western powers. There is growing interest in the bloc – at least 40 countries have expressed interest in joining, and 23 of those have formally submitted applications to become BRICS members. Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador-at-large for Asia and the BRICS, told AFP on Friday that one of the reasons countries are lining up to join is “the very polarized world we live in, that has been further polarized by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and where countries are being forced to take sides”. “Countries in the South don’t want to be told who to support, how to behave and how to conduct their sovereign affairs. They are strong enough now to assert their respective positions,” added Sooklal. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/08/21/jokowi-to-attend-brics-summit-in-south-africa.html.
