KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz today urged more South-east Asian countries to consider joining Brics, saying the move could enhance Asean’s reach beyond the region.
Malaysia is currently a partner to the informal intergovernmental organisation of five major emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which is growing after Indonesia became its latest member.
Speaking at a forum attended by Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) business leaders here, Zafrul highlighted that how other Asean countries evaluate Brics membership or partnership will likely shape the region’s economic growth and resilience.
“Could closer ties between Brics and Asean be mutually beneficial to both blocs? Some may argue that Brics lacks the cohesion necessary for long-term stability without a unifying force,” the minister said as a closing remark of the Asean Economic Leader conference here.
“However, Asean’s 50-year track record is as a real-time case study of how political and economic diversity can coexist while fostering peace and prosperity. So, having more Asean countries join Brics could help scale Asean’s positive experience beyond South-east Asia,” he added.
Currently, only four Asean members have shown significant interest in working with Brics.
Thailand and Vietnam are the other “partners” of the organisation, which has been promoted as an alternative to Western economic dominance.
Malaysia, which chairs Asean this year, has been actively promoting economic cooperation with Brics.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia’s formal application to join the loose organisation reflected Malaysia’s long standing non-alignment foreign policy.
Tengku Zafrul said today in the era of US-China decoupling and deglobalisation, Asean’s fierce neutrality and non-alignment could be the only precious factor that could “save” many of the world’s critical supply chains.
“Indeed this could be Asean’s, and by virtue of our chairmanship, Malaysia’s golden moment,” the senator said.
Tengku Zafrul said last December that Malaysia is closely monitoring developments after US president-elect Donald Trump threatened to slap Brics members with 100 per cent tariffs unless they committed to not creating a new currency or supporting another currency that would replace the United States dollar.
The minister said today Brics membership should not be seen as taking sides in geopolitical rivalries between great powers.
“I appreciate our learned panellists’ views that Brics’ membership or partnership does not mean that a country is tilting towards Russia and China but is more about hedging their positions. Asean’s collective interests must also take precedence over any single nation’s ties to any superpower,” he said.
