India yet to take call on joining Trump's Board of Peace

New Delhi: India is yet to take a call on US President Donald Trump's invitation to be part of the "Board of Peace" that will work towards bringing lasting peace to Gaza and possibly resolve global conflicts, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the numerous global leaders that the US President has invited to join the Board that was unveiled under the second phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Trump is set to host a ceremony on the margins of the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos on Thursday to announce the broad contours of the "Board of Peace" and its charter.

It is learnt that India is considering various aspects as the initiative involves sensitive issues, people familiar with the matter said.

The countries which have accepted Trump's invitation are Argentina Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

A number of countries, including China, Germany, Italy, Paraguay, Russia, Slovenia, Turkiye and Ukraine, have remained non-committal on the invitation.

Trump's "Board of Peace" is being projected by Washington as a new international body to usher in peace and stability in Gaza and beyond, triggering speculations that it could throw a challenge to the United Nations.

Originally, the new body was to be tasked to oversee governance and coordinate funding for Gaza's redevelopment as the strip was devastated during the two years of Israeli military offensive.

The Financial Times, quoting from the "charter" of the Board, said this week that it is "an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict".

"Durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed." The top level of the Board will consist "exclusively" of heads of state under Trump's leadership, the newspaper quoted a White House official as saying.

The Trump administration has already announced that the "Board of Peace" will play an essential role in fulfilling Trump's 20-point plan of providing strategic oversight, mobilising international resources and ensuring accountability as "Gaza transitions from conflict to peace and development".

The 20-point plan includes making Gaza a deradicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours and redeveloping it for the benefit of the people of the strip.

The White House last week announced forming a founding executive board to operationalise the Board of Peace's vision.

The members of the executive committee included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, US special envoy to the Middle-East Steve Witkoff, businessman and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and World Bank president Ajay Banga.

The other two members of the committee are Marc Rowan, the CEO of New York-headquartered private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Robert Gabriel, a US national security adviser.

The executive board will oversee another administrative group called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).