The way I understand it, back in previous years in the "old news" you are referring to, these countries were "invited" to join but they hadn't joined at the time whether as members or partners. That process takes time, and now one of them which is Indonesia has officially joined as a core member. The other 10 which were invited before, are now as partners.

There are others that are "invited" but never joined like Saudi Arabia (2023), Turkey (2024), Pakistan (2024), Bangladesh (2024) and are still considering it. Some others like Argentina (2023) and Algeria (2022) that were invited but rejected the invitation.