UK says it will hold off on joining Board of Peace over Russia concerns

The UK will not yet be signing up to US President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace over concerns about possible participation of Russia, the foreign secretary said Thursday, Anadolu reports.

Speaking to the BBC, Yvette Cooper said that the UK had been invited to join the board but “won’t be one of the signatories today” at a ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The White House has said the Board of Peace is part of a broader 20-point plan on Gaza endorsed by the UN Security Council in November 2025 under Resolution 2803.

However, Cooper said that the board is a “legal treaty that raises much broader issues” than the initiative’s initial focus on Gaza ceasefire.

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The initiative, initially conceived as a mechanism to oversee the Gaza ceasefire and post-war reconstruction, has since expanded into a broader international conflict-mediation body, with dozens of countries invited to join.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is not a man of peace, and I don’t think he belongs in any organization with peace in the name,” Cooper told parliament earlier this week.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump called the board “one of the most consequential bodies ever created.”

Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he invited Putin to join the Board of Peace.

Among the countries that have accepted the invitation are Azerbaijan, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt, as well as NATO members Türkiye and Hungary.

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