Russia is expected to play a hefty role in the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) which it hopes will become a major driver of Eurasian integration, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday. "Being part of the Bank's operations area, Russia will be encouraging investments into infrastructure projects in Siberia and the Far East. We hope that this bank will become instrumental in promoting transcontinental integration," Alexander Lukashevich told a news briefing in Moscow. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution proposed by China in 2014 to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asia region. The new bank plans to invest $100 billion in infrastructure projects in Asian countries. Half of that amount has already been budgeted by China. More than 40 countries, including Australia, South Korea, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, have said they would sign up to the AIIB, with Japan and the United States the two notable absentees. Russia is set to join the AIIB as a founding member on April 14. Source: Sputnik News
