The best way to view Malaysia's accession to the BRICS is to see it as an additional platform for greater international discourse.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization whose members include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and (since 2024) Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. In recent years, as the global landscape has gradually moved away from the US-led international order, the BRICS countries have received widespread attention.
Malaysia's foreign policy platforms have been the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for decades.
Joining the BRICS will pave the way for more economic opportunities for Malaysia, as there are 1.6 million individuals in the BRICS countries with more than $1 million in investable assets.
Will joining the BRICS have a significant impact on Malaysia? What's in it for Malaysia?
The search for another world order
The best way to view Malaysia's accession to the BRICS is to see it as an additional platform for Malaysia to gain a greater international voice and economic benefits as a middle power.
In recent years, there have been deep-rooted problems between the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and ASEAN. With 57 member countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the second-largest organization after the United Nations. It claims to be the collective voice of the Muslim world, but the organization is undergoing dramatic changes due to geostrategic shifts in the Middle East, such as reforms under Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Abraham Accords signed in 2020 between Israel and several Arab countries aimed at normalizing relations.
The recent failure of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to reach agreement on the conflict in Gaza shows that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has changed dramatically. Last November, Saudi Arabia hosted an extraordinary summit of the OIC countries and the Arab League on Gaza, but failed to reach a consensus on how to stop the war. Apart from a watered-down declaration that the conflict must end and humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza, the summit can be seen as a failure.
In addition, joining the BRICS is a relatively simple matter. The organization is a loose alliance and a platform for discussing close trade and political consensus on international issues. Unlike joining the EU, member states do not need to change any domestic laws to align with the organization, so countries that join the BRICS do not need to do much at home.
Much of the BRICS is also dedicated to South-South trade (between countries of the Global South), with China being the main force. Malaysia is already a member of the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which does require changes in domestic laws, so joining the BRICS can be seen as a natural progression.
Notably, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said of Chinese President Xi Jinping in a recent interview about joining the BRICS: "[China's rise] gives us a glimmer of hope and shows us that there are checks and balances in the world."
Judging by the number of candidates, there is a growing interest in BRICS. South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, reportedly said in January this year that 34 countries had submitted letters of intent to join the BRICS.
Vietnam and Thailand will almost certainly apply, and the Philippines appears to be interested. All of these countries, including Malaysia, are seeking a bigger platform, in part because Indonesia, the most important country in ASEAN, is now a member of the Group of Twenty (G20). Indonesia has a bigger platform, so it's no surprise that other ASEAN countries are also looking for bigger ones.
Clearly, emerging powers such as India, Brazil, South Africa, and China are at the forefront of the BRICS and are trying to build a new platform for developing countries. It's better to join early than late. Malaysia is late, as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE are all joining in early 2024.
We must not forget that the BRICS countries together account for about 45% of the world's population and a third of the world's gross domestic product. In the future, it is quite possible that the BRICS countries will become another version of the G7, the club of rich countries of the world.
At the same time, Malaysia supports some of the core interests of the BRICS countries. For example, the BRICS countries have always said that the world would be more stable if countries could get rid of the dollar and trade in other currencies. Malaysia believes that more trade should be done directly to bypass the US dollar. Malaysia may want to benefit from the BRICS Development Bank.
The only people who will be annoyed by Malaysia's application are likely to be the United States and its allies. The United States sees the BRICS as essentially a loose organization that seeks to replace the West's dominance in the international arena. Malaysia is ready to accept that.