Donald Trump is pushing to have his “Board of Peace” proposal ratified by world leaders in a special ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, according to reports.
In an invitation posted on social media by Axios reporter Barak Ravid, the President asked various countries’ heads of state or government to join him in signing the Board’s charter at 10:30am on Thursday.
The short deadline left politicians across the world scrambling to decide how they should respond to what appears nothing less than an attempt to build a Trump-dominated replacement for the United Nations, a body Trump has long criticized.
Chief among their concerns was the enormous control granted by the charter to Trump himself — plus the eye-popping membership fee of $1bn.
“This Board will be one of a kind, there has never been anything like it!” Trump wrote in letters sent to around 60 nations on Friday.
“Our effort will bring together a distinguished group of nations ready to shoulder the noble responsibility of building LASTING PEACE, an Honor reserved for those prepared to lead by example, and brilliantly invest in a secure and prosperous future for generations to come.”
And while stalwart Trump allies such as Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and Argentinia president Javier Milei enthusiastically accepted the proposal, other nations were more cautious.
“France was invited to join the Board of Peace and is examining the proposed legal framework with its partners. At this stage, it does not intend to give a favorable response,” a senior French official was reported as saying.
“The Charter goes beyond the sole framework of Gaza. It raises major questions, in particular regarding respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot under any circumstances be called into question.”
Israel too objected that the proposal “was not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy”, even though the Board was originally developed as part of a peace plan for Gaza.
Canada said it was open “in principle” but would not pay any fee. The UK said it needed to consider the idea, while Poland expressed skepticism about the fact that Russia — which is still waging a war of aggression in Ukraine — had also been invited.
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“Poland’s accession to an international organization requires the consent of the Council of Ministers and ratification by the Sejm,” said Polish president Donald Tusk, referring to the upper and lower houses of Poland’s national legislature.
“The government will be guided solely by the interest and security of the Polish state. And we will not let anyone play us.”
Trump’s ‘Peace Board’ grew out of a resolution by the UN Security Council in November that authorized an international stabilization force to manage Gaza in the wake of its devastation by Israel.
Yet according to a leaked draft published by The Times of Israel on Sunday, the current charter contains zero mentions of Gaza and gives the Board a far wider mission, while also taking veiled digs at the UN.
“The Board of Peace is an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” the charter reads.
It claims that “too many approaches to peace-building foster perpetual dependency, and institutionalize crisis rather than leading people beyond it,” and that “a more nimble and effective international peace-building body” is needed.
Structurally, it gives the Peace Board’s chairman — in this case, one Donald J. Trump — near complete control over the body, including the right to invite and expel member states at will, veto power over all decisions, and “final authority” on how the charter should be interpreted.
The body’s subsidiary “executive board”, which would implement decisions, is also stuffed with familiar figures such as Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio, his longtime ally Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British prime minister Tony Blair.
European officials told Bloomberg that they are requesting changes to these terms, and that they had lobbied Arab nations to do the same.
Among the other countries reportedly invited are Australia, Belarus, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, and Ukraine.
