On Board of Peace, Brazil's Lula says Trump trying to forge ‘new UN where only he is the owner’

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reportedly accused US President Donald Trump on Friday of trying to create "a new UN [United Nations]" with his proposed "Board of Peace."

On Thursday, President Trump unveiled his Board of Peace to lead efforts at maintaining a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas, insisting “everyone wants to be a part” of the body. Some fear that the board could eventually rival the United Nations — despite many US allies opting not to participate.

Lula, the veteran leftist, joined other world leaders who have avoided signing up for Trump's new global conflict resolution organisation, where a permanent seat costs $1 billion and the chairman is Trump himself.

"Instead of fixing" the United Nations, "what's happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner," Lula was quoted by AFP as saying.

Lula defended multilateralism against what he called "the law of the jungle" in global affairs.

His remarks came a day after he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who urged his counterpart to safeguard the "central role" of the United Nations in international affairs.

In his remarks on Friday, Lula said "the UN charter is being torn."

Although originally intended to oversee Gaza's rebuilding, the board's charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory and appears to want to rival the United Nations.

Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts.

London balked at the inclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine after invading in 2022.

France said the charter as it currently stood was "incompatible" with its international commitments, especially its UN membership.

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said, “This isn’t the United States, this is for the world...I think we can spread it out to other things as we succeed in Gaza.”

Trump asserted that 59 countries had signed onto the board, although only 19 countries were represented at the event. He told the group, ranging from Azerbaijan to Paraguay to Hungary, “You’re the most powerful people in the world.”

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations," Trump said, adding that the UN had great potential that had not been fully utilised.

Trump, who will chair the board, said he wants it to address challenges beyond the stuttering Gaza ceasefire, stirring misgivings that it could undermine the UN's role as the main platform for global diplomacy and conflict resolution.

Apart from the US, no other permanent member of the U.N. Security Council - the five nations with the most say over international law and diplomacy since the end of World War Two - has yet committed to join the board.

Moreover, according to Reuters, the board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza peace plan, and U.N. spokesperson Rolando Gomez said on Thursday that UN engagement with the board would only be in that context.

(With inputs from Reuters)