Invest more in member countries, boost ties with India, Sitharaman tells AIIB
This story was originally published at 14:48 IST on 2 March 2026
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NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to scale up its investments in member countries, particularly low-income countries, through innovative financing and non-financing instruments. India is the second largest shareholder in the bank and Sitharaman discussed ways to strengthen India's partnership with it in her meeting with new AIIB President Zou Jiayi here, the finance ministry said.
The AIIB is a multilateral development bank focussing on infrastructure financing in Asia and beyond. It began operations in Beijing in 2016 and has since grown to have 111 approved members worldwide. As per the institution's documents, the bank has a capitalisation of $100 billion and is rated "AAA" by major international credit rating agencies.
"...both discussed the importance of enhanced collaboration with AIIB through early upstream services in the infrastructure sector in India," the ministry said in a post on social media platform X. The Narendra Modi-led government has pushed the accelerator hard on infrastructure sector-led growth and aims to continue with the focus, the finance minister also told Zou.
At the meeting, Sitharaman also laid stress on the AIIB's role in developing capital markets, expediting approvals for projects in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and setting up a regional office in India, given the scale of its operations in the country. India is the institution's top investment destination with loans worth $9.53 billion as of Sept. 30. End
US$1 = INR 91.42
Reported by Priyasmita Dutta
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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