Israel accepted as member of Asian Development Bank
The regional bank is headed by a board of governors consisting of 69 finance ministers, including Anwar Ibrahim.
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has admitted Israel as its 69th member effective yesterday, in a decision that is likely not to raise questions on the future involvement of long-standing members of the regional bank who do not recognise the Zionist state.
Malaysia is one of the pioneer members of ADB since its inception in 1966, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in his capacity as finance minister, currently sitting on its board of governors, the bank's highest governing body.
A statement from ADB said it had conditionally approved Israel's membership in April 2022, about 17 months before the Oct 7 attacks, which were followed by a genocidal campaign by the Zionist state in Gaza that killed 50,000 people, mostly civilians.
The latest decision to approve Israel's membership was taken after the country had met "all membership requirements", ADB said.
Established in 1966 with the main aim of eradicating extreme poverty in Asia and the Pacific by financing socio-economic projects, ADB is co-owned by 69 members, 20 of which - now including Israel - are not from the region.
Japan and the US are the largest shareholders of the Manila-based bank.
Israel will be reprsented on ADB's board of governors by its Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right Zionist whose statements justifying the starvation of Palestinians sparked international outrage.
"No one in the world would let us starve and thirst two million citizens, even though it may be just and moral until they return our hostages," Smotrich had said in August.
MalaysiaNow has contacted the finance ministry for a response.