Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said the UK will not yet be signing up to US President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace over concerns about Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s possible participation.Cooper told the BBC the UK had been invited to join the board but “won’t be one of the signatories today” at a ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos.The board, which gives Trump wide decision-making powers as chairman, is being billed by the US as a new international organisation for resolving conflicts.Cooper described the board as a “legal treaty that raises much broader issues” than the initiative’s initial focus on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.The charter proposed by the White House does not mention the Palestinian territory and critics say the board appears to be designed to replace some functions of the United Nations.Some of the US’s traditional allies have not agreed to join the board and notably, no other permanent members of the UN Security Council – the five nations with the most powerful roles in international affairs – have not committed to participation so far.But launching the board at a signing ceremony alongside world leaders in Davos, Trump said he did not intend it as a replacement for the UN and expressed his belief that it would help forge an “everlasting” peace in the Middle East.Trump called the board “one of the most consequential bodies ever created”.Countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Israel have said they will become members of the board, and at Davos, President Trump said Putin had accepted an invitation to join the initiative.But President Putin has not confirmed this and earlier he said his country was still studying the invitation.Speaking to the BBC’s Breakfast programme from Davos, Cooper said the UK had received an invitation to join the board and strongly supported Trump’s 20-point pl …
