PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s inclusion in the BRICS group of emerging economies will have minimal impact on its longstanding relationship with the US, says an academic.
Malaysia and Thailand are the latest nations to express interest in joining the expanded BRICS alliance, which is focused on reducing global dependency on the US dollar, potentially reshaping the international economic order.
Francis Hutchinson, a senior fellow and coordinator of the Malaysia Studies programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said Malaysia’s historical engagements with diverse international forums such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1970 have not significantly strained its ties with major Western powers like the US.
He also noted that Malaysia has traditionally had good relationships with both China, its largest trading partner, and the US, one of its largest sources of foreign direct investments, for decades.
“The membership of NAM includes nations that have had issues with the US, such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Iran. Despite this, firms from the US proceeded to invest vast amounts of money in Malaysia’s electronics sector from the 1970s,” he said.
“Investment from the US into Malaysia has continued unabated even after Malaysia joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2015 and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2017. These initiatives can be taken to be more directly under the influence of China, given that country’s leadership role in both initiatives.
“Yet, this also did not affect relations between Malaysia and the US. Thus, Malaysia’s potential membership of BRICS, which has a rather disparate membership, is unlikely to raise concerns.”
Hutchinson said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim may be floating the potential membership of BRICS as a way to bolster Malaysia’s image as a non-aligned nation, which would also boost the perceived autonomy of his administration “without too much downside”.
He also said Malaysia’s potential inclusion in BRICS would have little impact on cooperation with the US and its allies in the region, adding that the war in Gaza – and how Putrajaya navigates through the wider impact of the crisis – would be much more consequential.
Hutchinson observed that a boycott of US firms by some Malaysians has grown to involve discussions about US investment firm BlackRock, a key global asset manager with a large investment portfolio of firms operating in Malaysia.
Several quarters have been urging Putrajaya to scrap a plan to privatise Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) due to one of the proposed shareholders’ ties with BlackRock, which has been accused of “profiteering from genocide” through its stakes in US defence firms that allegedly manufacture weapons used by Israel.
“The Anwar administration has taken a firm line, supporting not just Palestinians, but also Hamas,” said Hutchinson.
“This firm line, coupled with popular support for Gaza, has now had an economic impact in Malaysia with boycotts of companies perceived to have a link with the US such as KFC and Starbucks.
“How the Anwar administration handles this issue, as well as its relationship with US firms, is much more important for its economy.”
Responding to questions on how Malaysia’s inclusion in BRICS would affect its relationship with the US, a State Department spokesman told FMT the US believes all countries have the right to choose the groupings with which they want to associate.
The spokesman said the US firmly believes that all multilateral groupings, including BRICS, should further UN Charter principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as further the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.
“We are focused on working to tackle global challenges across a range of multilateral institutions like the G20, OECD, and Apec, including with some of the existing BRICS+ members,” he said.
BRICS, founded in 2009, comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The alliance now encompasses almost 46% of the world’s population and 36% of global GDP following the admission of Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE into the grouping at the beginning of the year.
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