China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum on Friday agreeing to create an international development bank that Beijing hopes will rival organizations like the World Bank. But some leading Asian countries refrained from joining the project, which the United States has been quietly lobbying against.
Japan, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia were not represented at the signing ceremony for the bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in Beijing. India joined the bank, along with Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, news agencies reported.
The bank, proposed a year ago by President Xi Jinping of China, is to offer financing for infrastructure projects in underdeveloped countries across Asia. China, which has promised to contribute much of the initial $50 billion in capital, sees it as a way to increase its influence in the region after years of fruitless lobbying for more say in other multinational lending organizations.
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