Taiwan in last-minute bid to join AIIB as founding member

Taipei decided on Monday night to make a last-minute formal application on Tuesday to join the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a founding member.

The decision was announced after Taiwan's Presidential Office held a closed-door national security meeting yesterday, bringing together the heads of various government departments to discuss the island's bid to join the new regional financing body.

"The finance ministry will prepare the necessary documents, which will be reviewed and approved by the cabinet before they are sent to the mainland via our existing communication channel with the [State Council's] Taiwan Affairs Office [in Beijing]," presidential spokesman Charles Chen I-hsin said.

Chen also said in a statement that joining the AIIB would aid Taiwan's push for regional economic integration "and increase the odds of the island taking part in international affairs and international economic and trade organisations".

But it was not immediately known whether Taiwan would be accepted as a founding member.

Taiwan and the mainland have been rivals since the end of a civil war in 1949, but relations have improved since Ma Ying-jeou became the island's president in 2008.