Since its establishment, the AIIB has played an important role in promoting infrastructure construction in Asia and deepening regional cooperation. On August 11, local time, it is reported that the Iraqi Cabinet Meeting has decided to authorize the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to sign the application documents for joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The Iraqi Ministry of Finance will allocate a portion of the 2021 budget to pay for Iraq’s capital share. The meeting also determined that Iraq will invest in the AIIB based on the upper limit of 250 shares, 50 shares will be paid in advance, and the rest will be paid after being notified.

As early as March 2019, relevant Iraqi departments discussed the possibility of joining the Asian Investment Bank and cooperating with China to formulate a roadmap to strengthen Iraq’s role in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Iraq has used various channels to promote and promote Iraq’s infrastructure investment opportunities and seek to increase cooperation with China. However, due to domestic demonstrations, the epidemic, and the change of government, it has been unable to achieve further results.

So far, in the past six years since the establishment of the AIIB, the AIIB has a total of 103 members, including 97 full members and 16 intending members. After Chile completed the approval procedures and provisions in July 2021, it officially became an extraterritorial member of the AIIB. As of July 2021, the AIIB has approved a total of US$26.45 billion in loans, involving 134 projects. Editor/Xu Shengpeng