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Why are Southeast Asian countries looking to join BRICS?

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Deutsche Welle

<p>BRICS is attracting Southeast Asian countries, with Thailand and Malaysia being the latest to express their interest in joining the bloc. </p><p>Last month, Thailand submitted a membership request, while Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview with Chinese news portal Guancha that his country would soon begin formal procedures.</p><p>&quot;Being a member of BRICS would open up trade and investment opportunities, so the question is &#x27;why not?&#x27;&quot; Piti Srisangam, the executive director of the ASEAN Foundation, told DW. </p><p>&quot;The bloc has members from all over the world, but none from Southeast Asia yet,&quot; he added. </p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/__rcImOZVrY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></div><p>According to James Chin, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania, &quot;both Thailand and Malaysia are seen as middle powers.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s better for them to join groups like BRICS so that they will have a larger voice in the international arena. But the major benefit will be trade,&quot; he added.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/4/8/ph-growth-in-2024-seen-among-highest-in-asean-region-1349">READ: PH growth in 2024 seen &#x27;among highest&#x27; in ASEAN region</a></div><div><strong>Greater economic opportunities</strong></div><p>Last year, BRICS — an acronym that was originally used to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — decided to expand its membership, inviting Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join the bloc.</p><p>The name for the expanded group has not yet been officially announced, but it could be called &quot;BRICS+.&quot;</p><p>Combined, its members account for about 45% of the world&#x27;s population — around 3.5 billion people.</p><p>Their economies are worth around $30 trillion — about 28% of the global economy, according to World Bank data.</p><p>The bloc &quot;can help Malaysia&#x27;s digital economy grow faster by allowing it to integrate with countries that have strong digital markets and also take advantage of best practices from other members,&quot; Rahul Mishra, associate professor at the Center for Indo-Pacific Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told DW.</p><p>&quot;Thailand would also be able to draw investments in important industries including services, manufacturing, and agriculture,&quot; he added.</p><p>Chin believes the trade ties that Malaysia and Thailand already have with China have influenced their decisions to join BRICS.</p><p>China has been Malaysia&#x27;s largest trading partner for the past 15 years and Thailand&#x27;s biggest for 11 years, according to official data.</p><p>Both these Southeast Asian nations becoming BRICS members &quot;will enhance their relationship with China,&quot; Chin told DW.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/5/29/marcos-tells-brunei-bizmen-ph-is-prime-investment-destination-1603">RELATED: Marcos tells Brunei bizmen: ‘Consider PH as your prime investment destination’</a></div><div><strong>Not taking sides</strong></div><p>Last month, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa insisted that Bangkok did not view joining BRICS as an act of &quot;choosing sides,&quot; or as a way to counterbalance any other bloc.</p><p>&quot;Thailand is unique in that we are friends with every country and enemies to none. We can act as a bridge between developing countries and BRICS members,&quot; Maris said.</p><p>Apart from BRICS, Thailand has also applied to join the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has 38 mostly Western members.</p><p>&quot;Small and middle powers do not have many options,&quot; Piti said. &quot;What Thailand is doing is a balancing act — one foot with the Western liberal democracy and the other foot with the emerging economies.&quot;</p><p>In Malaysia, public sentiment is currently more in favor of China, the world&#x27;s second-largest economy after the United States, according to a recent survey by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singaporean think tank.</p><p>Nearly three-quarters of the survey&#x27;s respondents said ASEAN should favor China over the US if the bloc were forced to align with one of the two rival superpowers.</p><p>In June, during the three-day visit of Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Malaysia, Anwar criticized &quot;the incessant propaganda that we should cast aspersions and fear the dominance of China economically, militarily, technologically.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We do not. We in Malaysia, having a neutral stance, have the resolve to work with all countries and with China,&quot; he added.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/5/9/philippine-gdp-grows-5-7-percent-in-first-quarter-of-2024-834">READ: Philippine GDP grows 5.7 percent in first quarter of 2024</a></div><div><strong>Will other ASEAN nations follow?</strong></div><p>Malaysia and Thailand are not the only countries in Southeast Asia interested in joining BRICS.</p><p>In May, Pham Thu Hang, Vietnam&#x27;s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a press briefing in Hanoi that &quot;like many countries around the world, we are closely monitoring the process of BRICS membership expansion.&quot;</p><p>Mishra believes Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia &quot;could be the potential applicants&quot; as they already have good ties with China, India, and Russia — all key players in BRICS.</p><p>&quot;For Vietnam, which has been registering significant investments, it would be a good opportunity to further boost its trade beyond their traditional markets into the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa,&quot; he added.</p><p>Ahead of the BRICS summit in South Africa last year, there had been speculation that Indonesia — the only G20 country in Southeast Asia that hopes to complete the accession process with the OECD within three years — could become a BRICS member.</p><p>But ultimately, Indonesian President Joko Widodo told the public that his government had decided not to submit a letter of interest. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a press conference in January that Jakarta was still weighing the pros and cons of the BRICS membership.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a5YZQVztDCQ?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>"Small and middle powers do not have many options," Piti said. "What Thailand is doing is a balancing act — one foot with the Western liberal democracy and the other foot with the emerging economies."</p>

"Small and middle powers do not have many options," Piti said. "What Thailand is doing is a balancing act — one foot with the Western liberal democracy and the other foot with the emerging economies."