Washington: US President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace has got off to a rough start: questioned by Europe, criticized by Israel and celebrated by friends of the Kremlin.
France’s Emmanuel Macron promptly declined the invitation, which was also extended to strongmen such as Belarus’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko. Several liberal democracies were squirming, uncertain how to respond and also not wanting to offend Trump.
That concern would appear justified. Irritated at the French president’s snub, Trump has threatened to impose a 200% tariff on champagne.
“Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join.”
Trump wants the full constitution and remit of the committee signed in Davos on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. But some elements of the small print have left several invitees troubled.
They don’t have long to decide. UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Canada are set to join France in choosing not to take part in the ceremony, according to people familiar with their thinking.
Trump is demanding that nations pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, Bloomberg reported, a condition since confirmed by the White House. That’s blindsided world leaders and left many bewildered, according to people familiar with the matter.
Potential members of the board — conceived last year as a Trump-headed body to oversee the redevelopment of post-war Gaza — began to filter out over the weekend. Invitees include world leaders from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Much of the concern centers on the wording of the peace board’s charter, seen by Bloomberg, which appears to place its ultimate decision-making power with Trump. That raises many questions — not least over where the payments for long-term membership would go, the people said.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
European allies are working to modify the terms and coordinate a response, people familiar with the matter said, and are seeking to persuade Arab nations to also lobby Trump for changes.
That response encapsulates much of Europe’s approach to Trump’s second term: play for time, be seen to engage, try to talk him down. The conversations are particularly challenging as they come at a sensitive moment in negotiations over Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and with Trump threatening to take Greenland, one of the people said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first to publicly push back against the proposal. While he’s in favor of the Board of Peace as a concept, his office said the make-up of a separate Gaza committee serving under the board was “not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” after officials from Qatar and Turkey were included.
Others suggested they’d seek changes. Carney said that while he’s up for joining the board, “in principle,” the terms would need to be discussed. A person familiar with the matter made clear Canada would not pay the fee. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to endorse the board, saying only that he’d talk with allies about a response.
Argentina’s Javier Milei confirmed he’ll become a founding member and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni has pitched herself as a mediator who is “ready to do our part.”
China is said to be on the list also however has not confirmed it. The country’s Foreign Ministry didn’t reply to a request for comment on whether it had been invited to join Trump’s Board of Peace.
Former British premier Tony Blair, who was appointed as an executive to the board, is playing a key role behind the scenes along with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the people familiar with the situation added. There is potential for the terms of the charter to be adapted after feedback on the initial draft, some of the people said. Blair’s spokesperson said he was not involved in determining the board’s membership and referred questions to the Trump administration.
Privately, senior European officials are more strongly critical. Several told Bloomberg they saw it as a clear attempt by Trump to set up a rival or replacement for the United Nations, a body of which he has been a long-standing critic. They said the board was about far more than the reconstruction of Gaza and that Trump sees it as a vehicle to resolve other conflicts and control international events.
While some nations will likely reject invitations to join, others — like Canada — could accept in principle and then try to negotiate away the less acceptable elements of the charter, people familiar with the matter said.
Some invitees reacted more enthusiastically to their requests to join the board. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called an invitation for Prime Minister Viktor Orban an “honor” and confirmed the country would participate, according to a social media post by spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs. King Mohammed VI of Morocco has also accepted the invitation, the North African nation’s foreign ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited by Trump to join the peace board, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. Moscow aims to contact the US side to clarify all the details of the proposal, he said.
A European official called that move farcical in light of Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and said they had no doubt that the Russian leader would be delighted to accept. They warned it confirmed the dilemma for the continent: go along with what Trump wants or risk further splitting apart the transatlantic alliance.
–With assistance from Ethan Bronner, Fiona MacDonald, Jenny Leonard, Dan Williams and Carla Canivete.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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