Davos [Switzerland], January 23: US President Donald Trump on Thursday formally launched a new international body, the Board of Peace, signing its founding charter alongside a diverse and surprising group of countries in a move critics see as challenging the United Nations.
"We're going to have peace in the world," Trump proclaimed from a stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after signing the board's founding document.
"This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created," he said. The US president himself chairs the board, which he bills as a new international organization to spearhead peace-building initiatives.
Countries that contribute $1 billion can secure permanent membership, while others would serve a three-year term. A full list of members has yet to be released by the Trump administration. Some 60 governments have been invited to join, but few of Washington's Western allies have publicly accepted, with Hungary and Bulgaria the only European Union members to have signed on so far.
The old arch-enemies, Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as Argentina, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiyeand the United Arab Emirates, are among the countries that have agreed to participate.
Two of Washington's biggest rivals, Russia and China, were also invited but have yet to make firm commitments.
Moscow's invitation, as well as that of its ally Belarus, in particular, has drawn criticism from Western countries, who charge that a credible peace forum cannot involve Russia, which has been waging a full-scale invasion against Ukraine for nearly four years.
"The charter is now in full force, and the Board of Peace is now an official international organization," the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, after inviting several leaders to sign the document one by one on the Davos stage.
The signatories included Argentinian President Javier Milei, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mongolian Prime Minister Gombojav Zandanshatar and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Competition or
cooperation with UN?
Trump originally conceived the board as a body to oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
He has since suggested the body's ambitions could be stepped up to handle conflicts and crises worldwide and said at the ceremony that the board "can spread out to other things" beyond Gaza.
Many analysts see such a suggestion as an attack on the UN, which Trump says he values but has repeatedly criticized for failing to resolve conflicts. The US president has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize and recently reprimanded Norway, where the Nobel Committee is based, for denying him last year's award.
As a result, Trump told Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in a text message that he will "no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace." During his speech in Davos, Trump again boasted of having allegedly ended eight wars.
But he struck a conciliatory tone with regards to the UN, saying: "Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. We will do it in conjunction with the UN."
Source: Qatar Tribune