MOSCOW, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Russia questioned on Thursday how U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace would work with the United Nations Security Council, which has served as the fulcrum of collective international peacemaking since the end of World War Two.
Trump first proposed the board in September, when he unveiled his plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza. Later, he said its remit would expand to tackle other conflicts globally – efforts traditionally overseen by the United Nations.
The United States is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have joined the board. The other council members are Russia, China, Britain and France.
“The charter of the Board of Peace defines itself as a new international structure designed to replace ‘mechanisms that have too often proved ineffective’,” Russian foreign ministry official Kirill Logvinov told state news agency TASS.
The board’s mandate never mentions Gaza, Logvinov, the director of the ministry’s international organisations department, added in an interview.
“It is clear that this approach raises questions about how the Board of Peace will coexist with the United Nations and its Security Council, which is the only universally recognised body for maintaining international peace and security.”
He reiterated Russia’s observation that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had not been invited to the board’s meetings so far.
The board’s charter says it will undertake “peace-building functions in accordance with international law”.
Its chairman, Trump, will wield extensive executive power, including the ability to veto decisions and remove members, subject to some constraints.
The UN Security Council’s primary responsibility is to maintain international peace and security, the UN says, with its first meeting in London in 1946 though its headquarters are in New York.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Marina Bobrova in Moscow; Editing by Kevin Buckland)
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