Donald Trump approved the charter of the Peace Council—a new international body he initiated as an alternative to the United Nations.
The signing took place at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The ceremony was attended by representatives of Middle Eastern and South American states—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Argentina, and Paraguay—as well as Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban, Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev. As CNN notes, fewer than 20 countries were represented on stage alongside Trump, with none of America’s traditional Western European allies among them.
In his address, Trump said the Peace Council intends to engage with a range of other bodies, including the United Nations.
After his speech, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Peace Council had been granted the status of an international organization. Heads of state and government then approached Trump one by one to affix their signatures to the charter.