New Delhi (Sputnik) — India will not oppose the funding of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through a multilateral institution like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Indian finance minister Piyush Goyal said on the sidelines of the third annual AIIB summit in Mumbai.
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"Every multilateral bank has many dimensions and one cannot dictate which projects it must invest in, in other countries. I think we should look at how we can benefit from such engagements rather than focusing our efforts on trying to see what they should not be doing," Piyush Goyal said.
Meanwhile, India has also asked the AIIB to increase it's lending by tenfold by 2020 to help the region meet its investment needs faster. Since starting its lending operation in 2016, AIIB has approved 25 projects in a dozen countries with a total financing of over $4 billion.
"With committed capital of 100 billion dollars and a huge need for infrastructure in member countries, I take this opportunity to call upon AIIB to expand from financing $4 billion, to $40 billion by 2020 and $100 billion by 2025," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the opening ceremony of the third annual AIIB meeting in Mumbai.
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Despite the rivalry between China and India, New Delhi has received the largest share of funding by Beijing-based AIIB so far — about $1.3 billion.
China has a 31 percent stake in AIIB, while India, the second-largest shareholder, has 8 percent of the voting rights.