Australia said Beijing had accepted many of its conditions for joining a new China-led Asian infrastructure bank, even as Canberra continued to have reservations about membership.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Monday described negotiations with China as "very positive." The deadline for a decision on founding membership of the bank is the end of March for a number of countries that China is seeking to entice, including Australia.
Last year, Ms Bishop persuaded senior cabinet colleagues, including the prime minister, Tony Abbott, not to join amid concern the bank's lending practices and governance may be less than satisfactory. Some of those reservations remain, according to the foreign minister.
"We want to ensure anything we invest in meets the very high standards of the kind of multilateral institutions Australia has supported in the past," Ms Bishop told reporters Monday. "These are matters we're continuing to discuss with China."
Canberra may be swayed by the UK's decision last week to become a founding member of the so-called Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The bank is part of China's push to place itself at the centre of Asia's economic development. Designed to help finance road, rail, port and other construction projects throughout the region, the lender is expected to have an initial capitalisation of around $US50 billion.
Beijing, whose relationship with some Asian countries has recently become strained over territorial disputes, has also been promoting an Asia-Pacific free-trade deal separate from one backed by its longtime strategic adversary, the US.
Mr Abbott said at the weekend he was looking carefully at the bank proposal, adding his government would make a final decision over the coming week on whether to join the institution.
Australia was also invited to become a founding member following lengthy negotiations last year, before Canberra came under intense lobbying from Washington to step back. Britain's decision to join may encourage other traditional allies to break ranks with the US, which sees the new bank as a potential rival to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank over which it holds greater sway.
Ms Bishop said Monday that Australia held similar concerns to the US over the bank's accountability and transparency. "There are particular milestones in the negotiations with China," she said. "As those milestones are reached, we consider our position. But this has been a positive ongoing review."
