On May 14, yet another working lunch of the Club of Ambassadors of IIB’s member states took place, which has already become a good tradition. Along with the management of the Bank and the heads of diplomatic representations, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, V.G.Titov, and MFA RF Secretary General, P.M.Kuznetsov, as well as other representatives of the Russian MFA, attended the meeting.

It is worth noting that, for the first time, such a meeting took place at the embassy of one of IIB’s member states, Mongolia, which will be welcoming the forthcoming 103^rd IIB Council Meeting in the beginning of June.

The Chairman of the IIB Board, Nikolay Kosov, provided the participants with a detailed information on key events that had taken place with regard to the Bank’s activities in the past half-year. He particularly pinpointed the recent opening of the IIB European Regional Office, the de-facto finalization of Hungary’s accession to the Bank and the quite successful, fourth in a row, bond issue. Speaking on the Bank’s financial situation, Nikolay Kosov emphasized the steady and very dynamic growth of the loan portfolio and the Bank’s assets. Since late 2012, when the IIB was re-launched under new management, its assets have almost doubled, reaching EUR 680 million on May 14, and the Bank increased its credit portfolio by 150% in 2014 alone.

The ambassadors of IIB’s member states listened with interest to a detailed and open speech of Mr. Titov on the current issues of Russia’s foreign policy in Europe, East Asia and Americas. He specifically mentioned IIB’s contribution as a unique platform for maintaining multilateral diplomatic dialogue.