Our View: Right call to skip Trump’s ‘peace board’
President Nikos Christodoulides made the right decision in staying away from the World Economic Forum in Davos and, most importantly, Thursday’s launch event for President Donald Trump’s ‘board for peace.’ The government was rejoicing on Sunday when it was announced that the Cyprus Republic was one of the 50 countries invited to participate in the ‘board for peace,’ but the initial pride over the invitation was eventually replaced by pragmatism.
The only EU member-state that attended the signing ceremony on Thursday was Hungary, whose prime minister Viktor Orban has strong personal ties with Trump. The rest of the member-states, including Cyprus, have sensibly decided to follow a common line that, would be decided collectively. How could any EU member-state have joined the ‘board for peace, considering until Wednesday Trump was threatening to impose punitive tariffs on European countries because they objected to his plan for Greenland?
This was not the only reason for the reluctance of Western democracies to join. At first it was thought that the board would oversee the implementation of a peace agreement for Gaza, but President Trump expanded its geopolitical role, claiming it would be dealing with other disputes. Some politicians expressed fears that Trump might want the board to supplant the United Nations, but the president gave assurances that this was not the case and that his peace vehicle would work together with the UN. He also appointed an ‘executive founding board’ while he would be chairman of the ‘board for peace’ for life. To become a permanent member of the board a country would have to pay a billion dollars.
There was concern in Nicosia that the US could see President Christodoulides’ absence from the signing ceremony as a snub, but the government explained, through foreign minister Constantinos Kombos, that his absence was for practical reasons; he had other obligations. It is unlikely the president’s absence would be held against Cyprus considering less than half of the 50 invitees attended Thursday’s ceremony. Cyprus staying away is unlikely to be noticed by the US anyway. The government was correct in pointing out that it was waiting for Brussels to forge a common position for member-states. In such instances, the multilateral foreign policy President Christodoulides loves to talk about is not helpful and it is better to act collectively as part of the EU.
Retired ambassador and former negotiator, Andreas Mavroyiannis urged Christodoulides not to join the ‘board of peace’ because it would be in direct competition with UN, on which Cyprus still depended, at least to guard the buffer zone. After the council of ministers meeting, on Thursday, Kombos tried to explain the government position but caused more confusion about the government’s stand. In this case confusions seems to be better than a clear-cut stand.