ISLAMABAD, Feb 12 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” next week in Washington, the country’s foreign office said on Thursday.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter 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.
Some countries have reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join the board launched in late January. Many experts are concerned the board could undermine the United Nations, although the U.S. has said that more than 20 countries have agreed to join so far.
Islamabad has previously said that its move to join the board was part of its efforts to support the Gaza plan under the U.N. 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 collective voice of eight Islamic-Arab countries.”
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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