The United State has "screwed up" on its way to deal with the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and "should not have done in this way," former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Tuesday.
One of the motives for China to initiate the AIIB was that the U.S. Congress held up the voting share reform in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other international institutions, Albright said at an event held by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
As China and other countries have been questioning Washington's excessive dominance in international institutions, the U.S. executive branch has proposed to Congress to try to adjust some of the voting share in the World Bank and IMF, in some way to ensure more equitable voting shares, but Congress has delayed to ratify such a reform.
"I think there has been certain amount of frustration (from China and other countries) about that," Albright said.
According to the former secretary of state, the AIIB should not be seen as some kind of Chinese power grab, but an opportunity for the U.S. to be able to put forward ideas on transparency and regulatory issues.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said recently that emerging and developed economies alike are looking to other alternatives as a means of driving the global system forward, as the international community waits for Congress to approve these reforms.
Also on Tuesday, Lew made it clear that the U.S. stands ready to welcome the AIIB as it complements existing international financial institutions and upholds high standards.
The AIIB, expected to be formally established by the end of 2015, will be an international financial institution to fund infrastructure projects in Asia. China confirmed on Tuesday that 30 countries have been approved as prospective founding members of the bank.
