TOKYO: Japan on Tuesday ruled out any immediate plan to join the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), categorically denying a news report that its ambassador to China said Tokyo is likely to take part.

The Financial Times reported that Masato Kitera, Tokyo’s envoy in Beijing, said in an interview Japan is likely to join the AIIB within a few months, a move that would leave Washington as the only big holdout.

But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday the ambassador had not made any such comment and Japan’s position on the AIIB had not changed.

“I have been informed that it is not true that Ambassador Kitera made such remarks forecasting (Japan’s) participation,” Suga told a news conference.

The report comes just before the end-March deadline China has set for participation in the bank as a founding member.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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