EU countries joining AIIB means a lot
- By Pang Zhongying
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 23, 2015
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The drive [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] |
Most popular opinion articles on EU countries' entry into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) made the same mistakes.
First, they only considered themselves as European countries and neglected their identity as EU members.
Second, they were too obsessed with their membership of the G7, whose prime time had long past, after the G20 declared itself as the premier forum for international economic cooperation at the Pittsburgh summit in 2009.
Third, they thought these countries joined the AIIB because it could meet their needs, but they couldn't explain why the United States and Japan were against the bank with the same needs.
Why did the EU countries join the AIIB? Except for the U.K., the other countries were mainly interested in its multilateral platform. Europeans believed that China proposed the bank to support multilateralism when global governance faced great hardships. In the article "China and Global Governance," former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana said, "China's move into multilateral processes (referring to the AIIB and other initiatives) is good news for the world. Europe - and especially the United States - must overcome their strategic mistrust of China. They must not squander the opportunity to participate in and shape these processes, so that the benefits are shared as widely as possible."
In the foreign policy field, multilateralism is seen as a key European value, and the EU is a strong promoter of international multilateralism. Therefore, the AIIB proposed by China was just what the EU wanted, so it joined the bank to recognize China's contribution and encourage China to do more.
What else made these countries join the AIIB? A deeper-rooted reason is that globalization has entered a new phase, in which Asia has replaced the United States and Europe as the major powerhouse.
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