Spokesman of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rolliansyah Soemirat, says Indonesia has automatically become an “interstate country” of the interstate association comprising the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of South Africa (BRICS) once it declared its intention at the recent Summit.
“Besides officially declaring Indonesia’s intention at the Summit, Indonesia has also stated the intention in an official letter of the Indonesian Foreign Minister to Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as the host of the recent BRICS Plus Summit ,” Rolliansyah told a media conference on Thursday, October 31,2024.
Based on procedures within BRICS itself, the interest of any countries applying for BRICS membership will be communicated by the current chairman of BRICS with all other members states.
BRICS recognizes three tiers of membership screening, namely interstate countries, prospective members and member states.
“By declaring its intention to be a full member of BRICS, Indonesia has since then been put into an interstate country status. We are in the first step towards membership after the State formally stated its interest,” Rolliansyah said.
“Again we leave it to the BRICS members themselves. What is certain is that we follow the stipulated guideline for BRICS membership. If they call other countries that have filed for membership as partner countries, it completely depends on them to do so,” he added.
Indonesia, Rolliansyah said, supports reforms in the multilateral system to be more inclusive, representative and in accordance with current realities.
Indonesian foreign minister Sugiono used the recent BRICS Plus Summit to raise the Palestinian issue. Indonesia encouraged active role of BRICS states and Global South countries to support the cease fire, enforce the international humanitarian law and recognize the Palestinian state based on two state solutions.
On the sidelines of the Summit, Sugiono also held bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia,China and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and President of the New Development Bank (NDB) as an entity established by BRICS to strengthen economic and monetary cooperation among members of BRICS.
