What is Indonesia?
Indonesia is a Southeast Asian country and the first from the region to become a full member of BRICS. The material tracks its role in regional diplomacy, its position in global nickel supply chains, and its growing energy and infrastructure demand.
Company timeline
- May 2025 - Bill Bishop said BRICS membership gives countries like Indonesia a framework for bilateral conversations with Iran and Russia that would be difficult to conduct alone without drawing scrutiny from other partners.
- Apr 2026 - Andreas Østhagen noted much of the region’s nickel comes from Sulawesi and the Spice Islands, part of the Coral Triangle, one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems on land and in the ocean.
- Sep 2026 - Ma Jun described a project pursuing geographical arbitrage: a Singapore data center short on green power builds a large solar production facility on a nearby Indonesian island.
- Sep 2026 - Ma Jun said Indonesia averages three babies per family versus 0.7 in China, implying massive future demand growth for housing, transportation, energy, and water, all of which must be green.
Where it appears in the record
Every line below is attributed to a named speaker.
BRICS provides diplomatic cover for members like Indonesia to hold bilateral talks with Iran or Russia that would attract political backlash in any other setting.
“One of the most important part of bricks is that ability for say PBO now who can have a conversation with Iran. PBO it would find it very difficult to have a bilateral conversation with Iran or even to some extent Russia without attracting the eyeire of other partners. But in a BRICS context, he can do that.”Bill Bishop · 30 May 2025
Ma Jun explains 'geographical arbitrage' in green energy: a Singapore data center imports hydrogen produced by Indonesian solar farms to overcome local clean-power scarcity.
“Recently we are looking at one project which actually does what we call geographical arbitrage. Basically, the data center in Singapore, it doesn't have enough power. It doesn't have enough green power. So they find a place in the nearby island of Indonesia, and they build a large solar panel production facility to generate hydrogen, and they ship hydrogen to Singapore to power the data center.”Ma Jun · 17 Sep 2026
Comparing nickel mining in Indonesia's high-biodiversity Coral Triangle to deep-sea nodule mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone challenges the assumption that deep-sea mining is inherently more environmentally destructive than land-based alternatives.
“A lot of that nickel is coming from Sulawesi or the Spice Islands region, which are in one of the most high biodiversity ecosystems in the world we refer to as the Coral Triangle, where you have very high biodiversity on land and extremely high biodiversity in the ocean. So, if you are comparing that region for nickel versus the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific, which is where these nodules are, one recognizes that, you know, it is a.”Andreas Østhagen · 9 Apr 2026
Ma Jun argues ASEAN green investment will grow faster than China's, driven by demographic demand: Indonesia averages three babies per family versus China's 0.7.
“Because Indonesia, you average have three babies per family, right? In China, have only zero. 0.7. So in the future, you will see a massive growth of demand for virtually everything, right? For housing, for transportation, for energy, for water. All of these require to be green. And the green investments growth, I think, in ASEAN countries will be even faster.”Ma Jun · 17 Sep 2026