The U.S., Japan and other nations yet to join China’s proposed $50 billion Asia regional bank shouldn’t fear the competition it will bring, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, while calling for the new institution to be more multilateral.
“None of us should be frightened of competition, let’s try and make this thing happen,” Abbott said today in an interview in Beijing, where he’s attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. For nations including Australia to join, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank would have to be more multilateral, “rather than an arm of any one country’s foreign policy,” Abbott said.
Australia, which will push for more private-sector funding of infrastructure projects when Abbott hosts the Group of 20 summit in Brisbane this weekend, has declined to sign a memorandum of understanding to create the AIIB, a key component of China’s efforts to expand its regional influence. President Xi Jinping, who first put forward the bank’s concept in October last year, is scheduled to address Australia’s parliament in Canberra on Nov. 17, with the nations still locked in negotiations for a free-trade pact.
The bank, a potential rival to institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, has been opposed by the U.S., which has asked its allies not to participate, the New York Times reported last month.
“I think China’s intention is for it to be a multilateral institution,” Abbott said. “As soon as the governance and transparency arrangements reflect those of other multilateral institutions, well not only would Australia be in it but I’d expect that Japan, the United States, Korea and everyone else will be in it.”
FTA Optimism
Abbott said he was “very optimistic” about the chances of signing a free-trade agreement with China next week.
“Things have accelerated dramatically this year,” he said. “I am optimistic that we can get an agreement, but nothing’s concluded until it’s over and we’re not quite there yet.”
President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Abbott at APEC for bilateral talks, three years after the U.S. leader pledged to strengthen his nation’s alliance with Australia, including stationing as many as 2,500 Marines in the northern city of Darwin. The U.S. is keen to expand Australia’s role in regional peacekeeping to check China’s military power and territorial claims in the East and South China seas.
Leading Country
U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere benefits the world, Abbott said.
“Notwithstanding the economic rise of China, notwithstanding the comparative diminution in the U.S. economic preponderance, America is still the world’s leading country,” Abbott said. “Obviously it’s important for the United States to remain very heavily engaged here in the Asia-Pacific and I am delighted that that seems to be the strong intention of President Obama.”
The prime minister, whose Liberal-National coalition won government in September last year, confirmed he will be meeting with President Vladimir Putin tomorrow in Beijing. Abbott said last month that he would use the G-20 meeting in Brisbane to confront the Russian leader for his nation’s alleged support of separatist rebels believed responsible for the shooting down of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. Flight 17 in Ukraine in July, killing 298 people including 38 Australians.
“My very consistent message all along has been that Russia needs to fully cooperate with the investigation” into MH17, Abbott said. “Mr. Putin certainly indicated at the United Nations and on the phone at the time that Russia would be cooperative. There’s been some signs subsequently that Russia was not as cooperative. I’d like his assurance that that was an aberration.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.net; Rosalind Mathieson in Singapore at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net
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