US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza on Wednesday designated 26 countries as “founding members” of the newly formed body.
The list of founding members includes Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania and Bahrain.
Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, El Salvador, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mongolia, Morocco, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam are also the founding members of the board.
A week after the US president formally introduced the board at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the body launched an official account on X.
Major European countries, including France, Germany and the UK were notably absent from the list, amid sharp disagreements with Trump over issues such as Greenland and tariff policies that have strained ties between Washington and several European capitals, Anadolu reported.
Ukraine questioned how it could participate alongside Russia and Belarus. Russia was not included in the board, despite President Vladimir Putin saying Moscow was ready to allocate $1 billion from Russian assets frozen by the previous US administration to the body’s budget.
The US president had announced the establishment of the board on January 15 as part of his broader plan for Gaza, under which the ceasefire agreement was reached.
The board was originally conceived to oversee the ceasefire and reconstruction of Gaza, but its charter expands its mandate to peace-building in all areas affected by or at risk of conflict.