President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 urged his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa to explore a bilateral trade agreement between the two BRICS partners, as Indonesia seeks to reduce its trade deficit amid growing global tariff uncertainties.

Ramaphosa’s visit to Jakarta, the first stop in his Southeast Asian tour, comes as Indonesia works to correct a six-year trade imbalance with South Africa. During a joint press conference, both leaders emphasized the need to strengthen trade ties in an increasingly volatile global economic climate, marked by US. tariff hikes and supply chain disruptions.

“Our trade has increased significantly in the past five years, but of course, we would like to continue and increase trade in a more balanced situation,” Prabowo said. “We’d like to take measures to perhaps have a preferential trade agreement (PTA) or a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in this period of international economic uncertainties.”

Prabowo said such an agreement could grant special market access for select goods or, in the case of a CEPA, allow for broader tariff eliminations and deeper cooperation.

While Ramaphosa did not directly respond to Prabowo’s proposal during the press conference, he welcomed Indonesia’s entry into BRICS, describing it as a “family of emerging economies seeking to counterbalance Western dominance.”

“We agreed on the need to increase trade between our two countries as a catalyst for inclusive economic growth,” Ramaphosa said.

According to official data, Indonesia-South Africa trade reached nearly US$1.4 billion (Rp23.3 trillion) between January and August 2025, with Jakarta successfully reducing its deficit from US$656 million in the same period of 2024 to just US$41.5 million this year. Between 2020 and 2024, Indonesia’s trade deficit with South Africa consistently stood in the hundreds of millions, peaking at US$1 billion in 2022.

In August 2025, Indonesian Trade Minister Budi Santoso said Jakarta was seeking to forge bilateral trade deals with several African nations.

“South Africa has told us that they were ready,” he noted at the time.

Following his inauguration in October 2024, Prabowo moved quickly to apply for BRICS membership, despite his predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s initial reluctance to join the bloc. Indonesia’s full membership was confirmed in January 2025.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who currently holds the BRICS chairmanship, is expected to pay a state visit to Jakarta later this week, marking another key step in Indonesia’s growing role within the coalition of emerging economies.