TRANSCRIPT
United States President Donald Trump is asking countries to pay $A1.5 billion for a permanent spot on his so-called "Board of Peace".
Originally conceived as a board to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, the proposed international body is seemingly expanding its planned remit.
So, who will be in charge of the board, and what is it expected to do?
“Just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council formally adopted my peace plan and officially endorsed the Board of Peace. This is a board like no other. It will have the heads of major countries…”
First envisaged as part of Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, it was touted as an 'international transitional body' tasked with supervising an interim Palestinian committee running Gaza.
Endorsed by the United Nations last November, the proposed board was given a two-year mandate.
Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Khaled Elgindy, says it seems Mr Trump may have bigger plans.
“There is a sense coming mainly from the administration that they would like to broaden the reach of the Board of Peace and even talking about replacing the current UN system. There's talk about charging countries a billion dollars to join this Board of Peace. So it's clear that Gaza might be the beginning, but it isn't the end of the Board of Peace as far as the Trump administration is concerned. And it may, you know, that secondary role of replacing existing multilateral institutions might even be more of a priority than its primary function in Gaza for this administration, since Gaza doesn't really have any real strategic value for Donald Trump.”
So far, dozens of countries and leaders - including Australia - say they have received an invitation to join the board.
They also include China, Israel, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Canada's Mark Carney.
So far, most countries that have been invited to be founding members have expressed some hesitation, with a few notable exceptions like Hungary and Vietnam.
For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the inclusion of Russia is cause for concern.
“We received the invitation, diplomats are working on this invitation. I think the question is, first of all - Russia is our enemy, Belarus is their ally. To be honest, it is still very difficult for me to imagine how we and Russia can be together in a certain council.”
Member states must be invited by the US President and will be represented by their head of state or government.
According to the charter, each member will serve no longer than three years, unless they can front the $1.5 billion fee in the board's first year.
Officials however, say membership itself does not come with any mandatory funding obligations.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says Australia is considering the invitation.
“Well, we are in discussions with the United States about this invitation. We very much welcome the invitation, but we'll work through it and talk with the US about what it entails and what it means.”
The board will be chaired by Donald Trump, who can only be replaced in the case of "voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity".
With the stated aim of promoting stability and restoring lawful and dependable governance, some are asking whether the plan is an attempt to replace or undermine the United Nations system.
A staunch critic of the United Nations, Donald Trump has overseen the US withdrawal from several key UN bodies.
Asked directly if the board sought to replace the UN, Mr Trump says that while he doesn't find the UN to be effective, he thinks it still has potential.
“Well, it might, I mean, the UN just hasn't been very helpful. I'm a big fan of the UN potential, but it has never lived up to its potential. The UN should have settled every one of the wars that I settled, I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them. They should be able to settle those wars. And I believe you've got to let the UN continue because the potential is so great.”
Seeking to clarify the mandate given to the board, Deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Farhan Haq says it has been strictly authorised for work related to Gaza.
“The UN has co-existed alongside any number of organizations, there are regional organizations, sub-regional organizations, various defense alliances around the world. Some of them we have relationship agreements with, some of them we don't. We would have to see, in terms of details what the Board of Peace becomes as it actually is established, to know what sort of relationship we would have with it.”
While the Board of Peace is what Donald Trump has been inviting world leaders to join, there are several layers of bureaucracy, with multiple associated bodies being established alongside it.
The Board of Peace would have an executive board attached, including former UK prime minister Tony Blair, US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Below the executive board and founding council sits The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the only component of the plan involving Palestinians.
With no Palestinians included on the executive board, Khaled Engindy says there's a danger the board could sideline the interests of Palestinians.
“The board itself, the structure that’s been put in place, this two-tiered board of exclusively foreigners with no Palestinians involved - in fact, the first tier is almost entirely made up of Americans, plus Tony Blair, and includes the World Bank president - then there's this second tier that includes regional stakeholders and others, but also no Palestinians. It's really only the technical committee in which, that is made up of Palestinian technocrats that obviously has a Palestinian identity and role. But we don't know what the relationship will be between the broader foreign entity of the Board of Peace and the Palestinian technical committee.”
With such a steep fee expected, critics of the plan also say that many countries won't be able to afford permanent membership on the board.
While the Trump administration has not clarified what the funding would be used for, some are suggesting it would go towards rebuilding Gaza.
Asked if he thinks the fee is reasonable, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says it must be directed to improving conditions for Palestinians.
“I mean, that's one of the issues - the modalities of that money, how's it going, all these questions - Canada wants money to have maximum impact. Let me underscore one thing. Let me underscore one basic thing about the situation. We still do not have unimpeded aid flows, humanitarian aid flows at scale to the people of Gaza. That needs to—that is a precondition for moving forward on this. “
Despite being US-led and the inclusion of several pro-Israel executive board members, Israel has also levelled criticism at the plan.
Opposed to the inclusion of Turkiye and Qatar, Israeli media says National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for a return to "full war" rather than allowing Turkiye to be on a board tasked with supervising the governance of Gaza.
In Gaza, Civil Defence Member Assaad Al-Saka says the board must improve the extremely difficult living conditions in Gaza.
“We demand the Board of Peace now to bring in big equipment for the civil defence - vehicles, machinery, resources, bulldozers and excavators for clearing the rubble and retrieving martyrs from under the rubble. We also demand the Board of Peace to expedite the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, because the people, currently in shelters in the Gaza Strip, are suffering immensely and enduring extremely difficult living conditions.”
