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New Zealand has decided not to join Trump’s Board of Peace, its foreign minister said, joining more than half a dozen other U.S. allies that have declined their invitations.
Chaired by Trump, the Board of Peace was launched last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with dozens of countries invited to join. Though its purpose was originally presented as overseeing the reconstruction and administration of the Gaza Strip, its charter suggests a broader mandate “in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” raising concerns that it could undermine the United Nations.
“A number of states, particularly from the region, have stepped up to contribute to the Board’s role on Gaza, and New Zealand would not add significant further value to that,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a post on X.
For New Zealand, a founding member of the United Nations, “it is important that the Board’s work is complementary to and consistent with the U.N. Charter,” he added. “It is a new body, and we need clarity on this, and on other questions relating to its scope, now and in the future.”
More than two dozen countries have said they will join the Board of Peace, including Middle Eastern powers such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while a number of U.S. allies in Europe, including Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine, have declined to join at least for now. Others, including China and Russia, remain noncommittal.
