US President Donald Trump on Thursday launched his Board of Peace, initially designed to cement Gaza's rocky ceasefire but which he foresees taking a wider role worrying to other global powers, although he said it would work with the United Nations.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the document along with other world leaders, including those from Qatar, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Kosovo, Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Bulgaria, and others.
Trump was the first to sign the charter, who later witnessed the ceremony held on the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Pakistan had received the invitation from President Trump to join the Board, which was later accepted.
"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations," Trump said, adding that the UN had great potential that had not been fully utilised.
Trump, who will chair the board, invited dozens of other world leaders to join, saying he wants it to address challenges beyond the stuttering Gaza ceasefire, stirring misgivings that it could undermine the UN's role as the main platform for global diplomacy and conflict resolution.
While regional Middle East powers, including Turkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western US allies have been more cautious.
Trump says permanent members must help fund with a payment of $1 billion each, and Reuters could not immediately spot any representatives from governments of top global powers or from Israel or the Palestinian Authority at the signing ceremony.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the board's focus would be on making sure the plan for peace in Gaza was fulfilled but that it could also "serve as an example of what's possible in other parts of the world".
Apart from the US, no other permanent member of the UN Security Council — the five nations with the most say over international law and diplomacy since the end of World War Two — has yet committed to join.
Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Trump said it would join. President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was willing to pay $1 billion from frozen US assets in the US "to support the Palestinian people", state media said.
France declined to join. Britain said on Thursday it was not joining at present. China has not yet said whether it will do so.
The board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza peace plan, and U.N. spokesperson Rolando Gomez said on Thursday that UN engagement with the board would only be in that context.
Few of the countries that have signed up for the board are democracies, although Israel, Argentina and Hungary, whose leaders are close allies of Trump and supporters of his approach to politics and diplomacy, have said they will join.
"There's tremendous potential with the United Nations, and I think the combination of the Board of Peace with the kind of people we have here ... could be something very, very unique for the world," said Trump, who has long disparaged the UN and other institutionsof multilateral cooperation.
Board members also include Rubio, the US Gaza negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
