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Two of the country’s longest serving foreign ministers have cautioned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese against accepting Donald Trump’s invitation to serve on his new Board of Peace, warning Australia risks becoming entangled in a presidential plaything and vanity project.
While his government has not made an official decision on whether to join the board, Albanese has responded apprehensively to the idea by stressing Australia’s support for the United Nations.
“Well, it’s unclear what the objectives of this are, which is why we will give it further consideration,” Albanese told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
“My government is one that always has an orderly, considered approach to all of our policy, including our international engagement.”
Trump’s Board of Peace was originally discussed as a vehicle to aid the reconstruction of Gaza after two years of devastating war, but a leaked charter for the body makes no mention of Gaza, highlighting its broader ambitions and potential to undermine the UN.
Gareth Evans, Labor’s longest serving foreign minister, firmly rejected the idea of Australian participation, telling this masthead: “Australia should play an active and generous role in Gaza’s reconstruction, but the Board of Peace as it has evolved is just another Trump vanity project, and an impossibly flawed vehicle for doing so.
“The board’s charter makes no mention of the UN Security Council resolution which authorised its creation.
“Its governance structure is not fit for purpose, not least by giving the US president near-total veto power over its decisions.”
Evans, who served as foreign minister from 1988 to 1996, said the board was “manifestly designed to further undermine the UN, will further fragment the international system, does nothing to advance political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Australia should have nothing to do with it”.
The nation’s longest serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer, was also wary of the proposal.
“We shouldn’t rush into a decision. I think we need to know more about what this Board of Peace would actually do,” said Downer, who served as foreign minister from 1996 to 2007 in the Howard government.
“The idea of President Trump being able to decide who is on and off it seems to make it too much of his plaything.
“I’d be happy for us to be involved in it in the context of Gaza, but beyond that I think we should put it on hold.”
Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr said he could see the rationale for Albanese to join the board as part of a coalition with liked-minded countries such as the United Kingdom and Japan.
“Just as at the 1945 San Francisco conference [which established the UN] where Doc Evatt championed the rights of small nations, there’s a case here for Australia to promote the interests of middle powers,” he said.
“Given our success at dealing with Trump, it would make sense for us to move with others.”
However, Carr stressed there were major questions to be resolved about the board, including how it would interact with the UN, how it would exert authority in conflict zones and whether the US would have an effective veto over any decisions.
Trump held a signing ceremony for the new organisation at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, predicting it would be “one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world”.
More than 20 countries have said they will join the board including Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
China and Russia have also been invited to join the board.
Most European leaders have not taken up their invitations, with French President Emmanuel Macron’s office saying the board’s charter “goes beyond the sole framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question.”
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has voiced concerns about “President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we are still not seeing any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine”.
In a document emphasising the need for “a more nimble and effective international peace-building body”, the leaked charter describes the board as “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”.
Countries can become permanent members by contributing $US1 billion in cash otherwise their terms would be subject to reapproval every three years by the chair [Trump].
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