MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Indonesia is a strong candidate to join BRICS, but the country has not yet formally applied to join, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia Lyudmila Vorobyova said in an interview with TASS.

"In my opinion, Indonesia is a very strong candidate to join BRICS. However, everything will be up to Indonesia, which has yet to officially submit an application despite the fact that Indonesian President Joko Widodo attended the most recent BRICS conference. But let's wait for the full results of Indonesia's presidential elections. Only after that, hopefully, can some serious efforts be taken on the Indonesian side," she stated.

The BRICS group has now gone through two waves of expansion since its inception in 2006. First, in 2011, South Africa joined founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China. Then, in August 2023, six new members, including Argentina, were invited to join BRICS after the intergovernmental group’s summit in Johannesburg. However, in December 2023, the new Argentinian government of President Javier Milei announced that it had declined the invitation for the time being because it considered integration with BRICS impractical. The five new members - Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - have started working as full-fledged BRICS member states since January 1.