No fewer than 46 countries have signed up to be founding members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), seen as one of Beijing’s biggest diplomatic coups.

But hard work lies ahead for the Asian power, which, experts say, must prove its naysayers wrong and show it can be a responsible global player.

Though the United States lobbied against the AIIB, some of its staunch allies, such as Britain and South Korea, have in recent weeks applied to join.

Experts say that while Britain’s surprise decision, in particular, turned the tide, it was also the lack of a hard-nosed approach from China about how the AIIB would be run that led to the shift.

“We know China would have a dominant role, but the fact that it did not officially demand veto power gave incentive for more states to sign up. It showed that the AIIB’s structure can still be negotiated,” analyst Li Mingjiang of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said.