The administration of United States President Donald Trump has requested that countries pay $1 billion in exchange for a permanent position on a newly proposed “Board of Peace,” an international body aimed at resolving global conflicts, according to a draft charter seen by news agency AFP on Monday.
The White House has extended invitations to various world leaders to serve on the board, which would be chaired by Trump himself. Among those approached are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Under the terms outlined in the draft charter, member countries—represented on the board by their respective heads of state—would be granted a standard term of three years. However, nations that contribute more than $1 billion in cash within the first year of the charter’s implementation would be eligible for extended or permanent membership.
“Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman,” the document states. “The three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.”
The Board of Peace was initially conceived as a mechanism to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, the Palestinian territory devastated by repeated cycles of conflict and most recently by the 2023–2024 war between Israel and Hamas. However, the language of the charter does not appear to limit the board’s mandate exclusively to Gaza or the occupied Palestinian territories, suggesting a broader scope that could encompass conflict resolution and governance in multiple regions.
According to the White House, the proposed structure would consist of three components: a main board comprising heads of state, a Palestinian committee made up of technocrats tasked with governing Gaza, and a second “executive board” that appears designed to serve in an advisory capacity.
The charter describes the Board of Peace as “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”
The document also appears to criticise existing multilateral frameworks, stating that the board should possess “the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.” The language is widely interpreted as a veiled reference to institutions such as the United Nations, which Trump has frequently criticised throughout his political career.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced its intention to withdraw the United States from 66 global organisations and treaties, roughly half of which are affiliated with the United Nations. The move has drawn international concern and reignited debate over Washington’s role in multilateral diplomacy.
Membership of the Board of Peace would be “limited to States invited to participate by the Chairman,” according to the draft charter, granting Trump unilateral authority over which countries are admitted. The charter also grants Trump the power to remove member states from the board, though such a decision would be subject to a veto by two-thirds of the board’s members. Trump would additionally have the authority to appoint his successor as chairman.
The initiative began to take tangible shape over the weekend when leaders from Egypt, Turkey, Argentina, and Canada were formally invited to join the board. In addition to heads of state, Trump has named several key figures to the body, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, senior White House negotiator Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kushner, who served as a senior adviser during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, was a principal architect of the Abraham Accords, a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab nations. His involvement in Middle Eastern diplomacy has long been controversial, particularly given his family’s business interests in the region.
Israel has publicly objected to the composition of the proposed Gaza executive board, which includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi. Both Turkey and Qatar have maintained political and economic ties with Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza, a relationship that has drawn criticism from Israel and its allies.
Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been a vocal critic of Israeli military actions in Gaza and has positioned itself as a mediator in Palestinian affairs. Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political leadership in Doha for years and has played a key role in past ceasefire negotiations and humanitarian coordination in Gaza.
The Board of Peace proposal emerges at a time of deep global division over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ongoing wars in Ukraine and Sudan, and mounting tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Critics of the initiative have raised concerns over the centralisation of authority in the hands of a single national leader, the potential for conflicts of interest among board members, and the absence of transparent oversight mechanisms.
The financial requirement for permanent membership has also sparked debate. Some analysts view the $1 billion threshold as a form of transactional diplomacy that could marginalise smaller or less wealthy nations, while others argue it reflects an effort to ensure serious financial commitment to peace and reconstruction efforts.
The charter does not specify how contributed funds would be managed, disbursed, or audited, nor does it clarify whether contributions would be directed toward specific conflict zones or pooled for broader use across the board’s operations.
