Pakistan PM to visit Washington for Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ inaugural meeting

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Washington next week to participate in the inaugural meeting of the US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the country’s foreign office announced on Thursday.

Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board ⁠was ⁠meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Thereafter, Trump said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

The first meeting is scheduled for February 19.

“I can confirm that the prime minister ⁠will attend ⁠the upcoming BoP ⁠meeting,” the foreign office spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

Foreign ⁠Minister Ishaq Dar will also accompany the premier, he said.

Although the U.S. has said that more than 20 countries have agreed to join so far, some countries have reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join the board launched in late ⁠January. Many experts are also concerned that the board could undermine ⁠the United Nations.

Islamabad has previously said that its move to join the board was part of its efforts to support the Gaza plan under the UN Security Council framework.

“We have ⁠joined the BoP in good faith,” Andrabi said, adding, “We are in it not in isolation, not as one voice, but as a collective voice of eight Islamic-Arab countries.”