Jakarta. The recently expanded BRICS is strong enough to not buckle under pressure despite freshly inaugurated US President Donald Trump being a sharp critic of the alliance, according to a Russian diplomat. 

Trump officially returned to the White House on Monday local time as the country’s 47th president. In his inaugural address, the businessman-turned-politician vowed to impose tariffs and tax foreign countries rather than the US citizens. He also promised an immediate overhaul of Washington’s trade system.

A month before his inauguration, Trump had threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on BRICS members should the bloc try to undermine the US dollar. China and Russia are part of BRICS, along with India, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Indonesia recently snagged a seat at BRICS, although Jakarta became a full-fledged member after Trump’s tariff threat.

It is still too early to tell if Trump will actually impose the tariffs. But Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Sergei Tolchenov said Monday that BRICS would remain unfazed by Trump’s threats as the group proceeds to promote use of national currencies among its members.

“This is BRICS’ internal affairs on settling the financial issues, be it by establishing a currency or implementing cross-border payments. I believe BRICS is strong enough to not take into account the threats, even those coming from the US,” Tolchenov said in an exclusive interview with The Jakarta Globe. 

Tolchenov said that BRICS was currently focusing on using more of its national currencies rather than creating an entirely new currency. Russia is pursuing local currency settlements with BRICS members following European sanctions that exempt Moscow from the dollar-dominated international financial system. These sanctions have caused the trade processes to be incredibly inefficient. Russia is already transacting in local currencies with India and China. Moscow is currently in talks to strike a similar deal with Indonesia.

Russia also wants BRICS newcomer Indonesia to have a similar attitude if another country -- in this case the US -- disapproves of Jakarta’s decision to join the group. “Now that Indonesia is a full-fledged BRICS member, I hope Indonesia will be strong enough to surrender to such arrogant expressions from any country or any non-BRICS state,” Telchenov told Globe. 

Indonesia, too, is trying to remain unbothered by Trump’s threats, according to the National Economic Council (DEN). The council’s chairman Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Indonesia is “too big to lean on any country”, saying that Jakarta should not worry about angering Washington. His deputy Mari Elka Pangestu not long ago told reporters that the shift away from the American dollar was bound to happen in international finance. Despite the progress in de-dollarization with the rise in local currency settlement deals, Mari Elka said that the US dollar remained dominant in global transactions.

Indonesia and the US have a comprehensive strategic partnership which their former leaders Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Joe Biden inked in November 2023. Prabowo also had a phone call with Trump to congratulate the latter’s comeback to the White House, although the two had yet to meet since the Indonesian leader rose to power. During his first presidential term, Trump ordered a review of Indonesia’s eligibility for the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which granted tariff preferences for goods coming from developing nations. The GSP expired in 2020. It is currently awaiting congressional renewal.

Indonesia-US trade totaled $34.9 billion in January-November 2024, official government figures showed. Indonesia booked a $12.8 billion surplus in that 11-month period.

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