Bank (AIIB) will soon count 20 EU countries among its members. But how could the EU make the most of this presence in the bank? Apart from direct business opportunities for its private sector, there are strategic, long-term considerations too. It will be imperative that the EU exploit the link between the AIIB and the Belt and Road Initiative and ensure that the bank's functioning remains consistent with EU development standards through a carefully coordinated voice within the institution. EGMONT Royal Institute for International Relations their collaborative efforts recently acquired a new dimension: creation of international bodies from scratch. 1 Most prominent examples include the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the BRICS-launched New Development Bank (NDB) as well as the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). Of the three new structures, most analytical attention has focused on the AIIB (proposed unilaterally by China) whose operational phase started in January 2016 with 57 founding members (including 14 from the EU). This policy brief aims to explore how the EU could deal with the institution and, by extension, China"s growing assertiveness in the international system, by engaging the country from within the Beijing-based bank. Arguably, the EU has, in the past decade, gradually come to adopt a more accommodating approach towards China. This has not amounted to the EU letting go of its approach in its external relations as a "normative power". Rather, the 28-country bloc has become more strategic about its engagement with emerging powers, including China. This can, among others, be exemplified by the EU"s pragmatic change of negotiation strategy with the country since the 2009 Copenhagen Summit or, more recently, by the No.