By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GettyImages.
Indonesian President Joko 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,” Widodo told reporters ahead of his departure.
The trip is Widodo’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.
In June, Bangladesh formally applied to join BRICS after a meeting in Geneva between Hasina and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the chair of the group this year.
That same month, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said Bangladesh was looking forward to joining the group.
“We will surely join once they invite us,” he told reporters, according to Bangladeshi media. “BRICS leaders are thinking of taking some emerging economies – around eight new countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.”
BRICS was formed in 2006 as BRIC. South Africa was added in 2010.
In 2015, BRICS set up its own lending institution, the New Development Bank, and said it has approved a little more than U.S. $30 billion of projects in all of its member countries. The 80-odd projects are in sectors such as transport, water and sanitation, clean energy, digital infrastructure, social infrastructure, and urban development, the bank said.
The BRICS bank admitted Bangladesh as a member in 2021, calling the South Asian nation “one of the world’s fastest growing economies.”
Aside from attending the BRICS summit, Widodo 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.