BUCHAREST: Romanian President Nicusor Dan said Sunday he had received an invitation to attend the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington on February 19.
Dan, writing on his Facebook page, said Romania had not yet made a decision as to whether it would participate.
That would depend, he said, “on discussions with our US partners on the format of the meeting for countries like Romania, which are not currently members of the Board but which wish to be part of it on condition its charter is revised.”
On Saturday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he, too, had received an invitation to attend the meeting, and that he intended to go.
Trump launched his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and some 19 countries have signed its founding charter.
Originally designed to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board’s mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.
Several leaders around the world have received invitations to be part of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” whose permanent members are required to pay $1 billion to join.
Some countries — including Croatia, France, Italy, New Zealand and Norway — have already declined joining it, and others have said they could only consider doing so if its charter were changed.
Under its current charter, the “Board of Peace” has Trump both as its chairman and as the US representative.
It says Trump, as chairman, will have “exclusive authority to create, modify or dissolve entities as necessary” and that he can only be replaced in case of “voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity.”