UK not ready to sign up to Donald Trump’s ‘board of peace’, says Yvette Cooper | Foreign policy
Britain will not join Donald Trump’s “peace council” on Thursday, Yvette Cooper said, voicing concerns about Russian interference.
The UK strongly supports the US president’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which he sought to highlight at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the foreign secretary said.
Trump’s so-called peace board was established last week with the intention of overseeing a ceasefire and reconstruction in Gaza, but critics argue it is a Trumpian alternative to the UN and would undermine existing international bodies. There is no mention of Palestinian territory in the charter proposed by the White House.
Pressed on whether the UK would join the “peace board”, Cooper told BBC Breakfast on Thursday that the UK “will not be one of the signatories”.
“There is a lot of work to be done. We will not be one of the signatories today,” he said. “Because this is about a legal agreement that raises much broader issues, and we also have concerns about President Putin being part of something that talks about peace when we haven’t yet seen any sign from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine. And frankly, that’s what we need to be talking about.”
Cooper said Vladimir Putin “has shown no willingness to come in and do this deal, and that’s where the pressure has to be now.” He added: “But our international discussions, including with our allies, will continue.”
The Kremlin announced that the Russian President was invited to join the Trump delegation on Monday. At Davos, Trump said he had accepted Putin’s invitation to join the initiative. A Kremlin spokesman told reporters on Monday that Russia was trying to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer to Washington before responding.
Among the first appointments to the board announced last week, when Trump became president, was a “founding board” that included former British prime minister Tony Blair and US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Also appointed were Trump’s troubleshooting envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and World Bank president Ajay Banga. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt and Israel announced that they would be members of the board.
As talks to end the war in Ukraine continue, Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Davos on Thursday. In a rambling speech in Davos on Wednesday, Trump said “we’re reasonably close” to a deal on Ukraine.
Referencing an expected meeting with Zelenskyy, he said: “They are at a point now where they can come together [with Vladimir Putin] and make a deal… And if they don’t, they’d be fools, that goes for both of them.”
