BRICS ties seen to help ASEAN

Southeast Asia's engagement with the BRICS bloc will help the region diversify its economy and diplomacy amid the changing global geopolitical landscape, experts say.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as an organization, is not a member of the bloc, but some individual ASEAN members are associated with BRICS.

Indonesia is the only ASEAN country that is a full member of BRICS, while Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are partner countries.

The four countries can draw on their experience in ASEAN to be influential players within the BRICS bloc, according to Mustafa Izzuddin, a senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore.

Partnerships with BRICS can help ASEAN members diversify their economic and diplomatic options and amplify Global South voices in governance, he said.

"BRICS has immense potential as a credible constellation of middle powers to play the role of a good international citizen in balancing self-interest with respect for global commons," Mustafa said.

By being involved in BRICS, ASEAN's middle powers will be able to reaffirm the centrality of ASEAN in shaping international affairs, while also advancing collaboration to reinforce ASEAN unity, he said.

ASEAN centrality as a guiding principle ensures that Southeast Asia is the core of regional political, security and economic frameworks.

Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian, a former senator in Malaysia's parliament, said ASEAN members' participation in BRICS will safeguard the regional bloc's centrality against geopolitical pressures.

The expansion of BRICS into Southeast Asia does not dilute ASEAN centrality in any measure, Jaziri said. Rather, it "elevates, reinforces and extends Southeast Asia's strategic relevance onto the global stage".

Jaziri, who currently serves as chairman of BRICS International Malaysia, an entity that aims to foster closer ties between Malaysia and BRICS, said ASEAN is a geographically defined, treaty-based regional organization designed to maintain peace, stability and economic integration within the region.

Flexible caucus

BRICS, on the other hand, operates as a flexible, global geo-economic caucus uniting premier economies of the Global South. BRICS is neither an alternative security bloc nor does it seek to establish a competing regional treaty framework in Southeast Asia, Jaziri said.

ASEAN member states view BRICS as a "complementary, multivector megaphone to influence the global economic order", he said.

BRICS and ASEAN can "mutually strengthen" each other as two multilateral collectives, Mustafa of Solaris Strategies Singapore said.

With four ASEAN countries directly linked to BRICS, and three BRICS countries — Russia, India and China — serving as full dialogue partners of ASEAN, BRICS and ASEAN have "excellent compatibility and perfect complementarity to make a collaborative impact on the present and future trajectory of Asia", he said.

Aleksius Jemadu, a lecturer on international relations at Pelita Harapan University in Indonesia, said ASEAN and BRICS can complement each other in reviving the spirit of multilateralism, especially in international trade.

Muhammad Habib Abiyan Dzakwan, a researcher at the department of international relations in the Center for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia, said ASEAN countries that are part of BRICS need to coordinate with each other so they can elevate and promote ASEAN's best practices.

Leonardus Jegho in Jakarta contributed to this story.