Jakarta. BRICS chair Brazil has invited President Prabowo Subianto to the group's upcoming summit in Rio de Janeiro this July.

On July 6-7, Rio de Janeiro will host the historic gathering of BRICS leaders. This would be the first time for Prabowo to attend the BRICS summit that would have leaders of emerging economies in one room. Indonesia will also be making its inaugural appearance as the China-led bloc's full-fledged member.

The Indonesian government reported that Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira had extended the invitation during his recent talks with Indonesia's senior diplomat Arrmanatha Nasir on the margins of the G20 ministerial meeting in South Africa.

"It was then that Brazil expressed its hope for President [Prabowo] to attend the upcoming BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro this July. [His attendance] will be part of the ongoing efforts to strengthen Indonesia's role in that forum," a Foreign Ministry press statement reads.

The ministry did not say whether Prabowo would attend the BRICS Summit. Deputy Foreign Minister Arrmanatha, however, had told Vieira that Indonesia vowed to "actively participate" in all BRICS' agenda. 

Prabowo had skipped last year's Kazan summit when Russia held the rotating BRICS chairmanship as he was only freshly sworn in at the time. Prabowo's Merah Putih ministerial cabinet was nascent, and so the ex-army general sent Foreign Minister Sugiono instead. It also turns out that Prabowo had also tasked Sugiono to unveil Indonesia's formal request to join BRICS. It took Indonesia less than three months before Brazil announced Indonesia to be officially part of the club in early January.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa as its early members. It later expanded with the addition of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and most recently, Indonesia. Jakarta's pursuit of a BRICS membership marked its change of heart.

In 2023, Former President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that Indonesia was in no rush to apply to BRICS as it wanted to weigh in the pros and cons first. Jokowi had flown to South Africa at the time for the BRICS summit. Jokowi was representing ASEAN as Indonesia was the Southeast Asian bloc's rotating chair.

BRICS is synonymous with its de-dollarization agenda. US President Donald Trump has threatened 100-percent tariffs on BRICS nations should they act to undermine the American dollar. Prabowo's senior economic advisor Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan had said that Jakarta should remain unfazed by Trump's threats, even saying that "Indonesia is too big to lean on any country". According to Luhut's deputy Mari Elka Pangestu, a country is free to choose the currency they transact in. Indonesia has also struck some deals that let its businesses make cross-border transactions in currencies other than the American dollar. For instance, Indonesia is already using local currencies when trading with China.

Brazil has included climate financing as one of its key priorities in its BRICS presidency. The country is also hosting the UN climate talks COP30 this year. Coal-reliant Indonesia, too, sees opportunity in engaging in such discussions with BRICS as developed economies fail to channel $100 billion a year to less-wealthy nations for climate change mitigation efforts.

"So they [developed economies] have broken the $100 billion promise. We will try to find a possible climate financing in our discussions with BRICS," Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno told a recent business forum in Jakarta.

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