US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s newly formed “Board of Peace” on Wednesday announced 26 countries designated as founding members of the initiative, including Pakistan.
A week after Trump formally introduced the initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the body launched an official account on the social media platform X.
A post on Wednesday said that the Board “welcomes Pakistan as a founding member of our growing international organisation”, Anadolu Agency reported.
The list of founding members also includes Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, El Salvador, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Mongolia, Morocco, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, spanning the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caucasus.
Notably absent from the list are major European countries such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, amid sharp disagreements with Trump on issues including Greenland and tariff policies, which have strained relations between Washington and several European capitals.
Ukraine questioned how it could participate alongside Russia and Belarus.
Belarus accepted the invitation to join, while Russia was not included in the board, despite President Putin saying Moscow was ready to allocate $1 billion from frozen Russian assets.
Trump had earlier rescinded Canada’s invitation, citing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum, in which he warned against economic coercion by major powers and a new world order.
Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2026
