Abbott says Australia will decide soon on whether to join AIIB
Decision to be part of the China-backed institution would likely upset US and Japan
Australia expects to make a decision within weeks on whether it will seek to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday.
Australia's decision on whether to become a founding member of the institution risks upsetting either key strategic allies the United States and Japan, or top trading partner China.
Britain this week said it had sought to become a founding member of the AIIB because it was in its "national interest", making it the first Western nation to embrace the institution which would finance infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific.
"Our position all along has been that we are happy to be part of some thing which is a genuine multilateral institution such as the World Bank, such as the Asia Development Bank. What we are not prepared to do is to sign onto something which is just an arm of one country's foreign policy," Abbott told Sky News Australia.
"We're looking very carefully at this, and we'll make a decision in the next week or so."
Twenty-one countries were represented at the announcement of the bank in October - Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Indonesia later said it would join.