Why Southeast Asia is wary of Trump’s ‘pay-to-play’ global peace board
Nations are likely to try to avoid early commitment while steering clear of outright rejection to minimise US retaliation, analysts say
The initiative, presented by Trump as a new international body to promote global stability, was initially authorised by the United Nations Security Council to help oversee the Gaza peace plan and post-war reconstruction. But draft charter language reported by international media, and Trump’s suggestion that the body could later address other conflicts, point to ambitions beyond Gaza.
Ngoei Wen-Qing, an associate professor of history at the Singapore Management University, said the initiative was another of Trump’s attempts to recentre global politics around the US. “There have been suggestions that the world is increasingly multipolar, and the Trump administration has been trying to reverse that in dramatic ways.”
It was Trump’s “more exclusive version” of the UN Security Council, where he would hold almost uncontested veto power as the chair, said Kevin Chen, an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.