The new international body, the "Peace Committee," led by U.S. President Donald Trump, officially launched on the 22nd (local time).
According to the Associated Press and others, President Trump hosted a charter-signing ceremony for the Peace Committee at the Davos forum venue in Switzerland, inviting heads of state and officials. Trump said "everyone wants to join," adding that 59 countries had signed.
However, foreign media said they counted about 20 countries that had expressed interest in participating. TASS reported that the United States and 19 countries—Armenia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Uzbekistan—along with Kosovo, had signed.
Most of the United States' traditional allies, including the United Kingdom and France, declined or did not clearly indicate their intention to participate. European countries are said to be reluctant because Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his intention to join. After the war in Ukraine, Putin proposed to pay membership dues with $1 billion (1.4678 trillion won) in Russian state assets frozen in the United States. Trump limited member terms to three years, but in the first year of the launch, any country that pays more than $1 billion would be granted permanent membership.
The Peace Committee was initially conceived as an organization for rebuilding the Gaza Strip in Palestine and for peace policy. However, some suspect that President Trump, who serves as "chair for life," aims to use the Peace Committee to replace the United Nations. Bloomberg reported that the charter outlines a broad role to "secure lasting peace in regions affected or threatened by conflict." At the signing ceremony, Trump said he would cooperate with the U.N., but added, "If we succeed in Gaza, we can expand to other issues."