Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK will turn down its invitation to join Donald Trump’s planned ‘Board of Peace’.
The US President announced the panel as part of his plan to end the brutal war in Gaza – but its broad founding charter has led some to speculate he wants to turn it into a rival to the United Nations.
And it later emerged that Russian warmonger Vladimir Putin and Belarussian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko were invited to join.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Cooper confirmed the government had been offered a seat at the table.
But she said the UK would not accept Trump’s invitation when he pushes the proposal at the World Economic Forum in Davos today.
The Foreign Secretary said: ‘We won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues.
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‘We do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine.
‘And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.’
However, she emphasised the UK remains strongly committed to Trump’s 20-point plan for peace in the Middle East and would keep up international discussions ‘including how we work with this’.
Her announcement comes after French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country would decline the invitation.
On Monday, his office released a statement saying the charter ‘goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question’.
The charter, which sets out the founding principles for the body, does not mention Gaza at all.
That fact has prompted questions over whether it will be expanded to tackle conflicts around the world in the future, presenting competition to the UN – and giving Trump another chance to win his elusive Nobel Prize.
According to the charter, countries that wish to bag a permanent set on the board would need to contribute more than $1 billion in cash to the new organisation within its first year.
Meanwhile, Putin has said Moscow would continue to consult with its ‘strategic partners’ before coming to a decision on whether to take a seat on the board.
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