The White House mistakenly included Belgium in the list of countries that have agreed to join the Peace Council created by US President Donald Trump. The country was probably confused with Belarus. This was reported by the American television channel NBC News on Thursday, January 22.
According to the media, the Trump administration has distributed a list of 22 countries that have joined the Peace Council. In addition to Belgium and the US, the list includes Azerbaijan, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Kosovo, Morocco, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pakistan, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Uzbekistan. However, the list does not include Belarus, whose President Alexander Lukashenko signed the document of accession to the organization on January 20.
The official list of countries participating in the Peace Council, compiled by the White House, is not publicly available. The list of countries, which also includes Belgium, was published on January 22 on the social network X by Hiba Nasr, who heads the Washington bureau of the Saudi television station Asharq News. "To be clear: the list of countries was distributed by the White House," she specified.
Belgium: We have not signed the charter of the Peace Council
"Belgium has not signed the charter of the Peace Council. The information about this is incorrect. We want Europe to give a unified and coordinated response. "Like many other European countries, we also have some doubts about this proposal," wrote Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Maxime Prevost on his page on the social network X.
The White House confused Belgium with Belarus by including the former in the list of countries participating in the Peace Council, Belgian television VRT reported, citing government sources. According to information from the American television NBC, Belgium signed the document on joining the organization, but changed its decision at the last moment.
However, Belgian authorities refute NBC's data. "We have in no way expressed an intention to sign the document. We have informed our American partners of the reasons why we cannot sign it in its current form", the Belgian Foreign Ministry says.
What is the Peace Council created by Trump?
Donald Trump's new international initiative is presented as a key mechanism for managing Gaza after the war. Observers familiar with the Peace Council's charter note that the powers of this body could be much broader, so that it could become a competitor to the UN.
About 60 countries have received an invitation to join the Peace Council. Half of them have agreed, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the UAE and Turkey. From the EU, only two countries have signed the charter: Bulgaria and Hungary. The remaining Community member states either refused (Norway, Slovenia, France, Sweden) to participate in the organization, or did not comment on the invitation. Britain also did not agree to participate in the Peace Council. Representatives of 19 countries attended the signing ceremony of the document during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump withdrew the invitation to participate in the "Peace Council" sent to Canada. He published an address to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on his social network Truth Social. This happened after Carney's speech in Davos, in which the Canadian prime minister criticized the state of world politics, in which "great powers" use economic integration, tariffs and other tools to coerce "middle powers".
Author: Vladimir Begunkov