In Washington at the Donald Trump Peace Institute on the morning of 19 February, the first meeting of the Peace Council, created at the initiative of US President Donald Trump, opened.
The event began with a speech by Trump himself. The American leader announced the allocation of more than $7 billion for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, noting Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan among the donors of such assistance.
In the presidium, where there is an empty seat for the American head of state, sit US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoys Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner.
The next item on the programme for the Peace Council meeting is a roundtable discussion which will be attended by Marco Rubio, Steve Whitkoff, Jared Kushner, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Walz and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Delegations from more than 20 countries travelled to the Peace Council meeting. Among them were King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and other world leaders.
The Peace Council was originally conceived precisely as a body to govern the Gaza Strip after the war under Trump’s peace plan, but it has since become clear that the US president sees it as a new international body with much broader powers.
On 22 January, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump signed the Peace Council Charter. He himself became its chairman, and for lifetime membership in the Council countries are invited to contribute one billion dollars each. Joining Trump at the signing ceremony were leaders of other nations that have joined the Council, mostly from the Middle East and South America, as well as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Trump’s speech in Washington kicked off the Peace Council meeting