Government: Slovakia Won't Join Trump's Board of Peace for Now

Bratislava, 28 January (TASR) - The Slovak government has decided not to join the Board of Peace that was recently set up by US President Donald Trump for now, according to a document approved by the cabinet at its session on Wednesday. One of the reasons for this is that Slovakia wouldn't be able to meet the financial commitment of 1 billion USD due to its consolidation efforts. "Slovakia will support all peace initiatives that have the potential to contribute to stability and are not in conflict with the rules that, in line with the UN Charter of 1945, have helped to protect us from a Third World War following the horrors of the first two," declared the government. According to its own statement, the government approaches the issue of creating new global security structures aimed at ensuring peace and security with due diligence, and evaluates them partly in relation to Slovakia's efforts to obtain non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council in 2028-2029. The cabinet stated that new initiatives in the form of obligations under international law must be carefully assessed. It pointed to Article 103 of the UN Charter, which stipulates that in the event of a conflict between obligations stemming from decisions adopted within the Board of Peace and obligations under the UN Charter, Slovakia would have to give precedence to the obligations set out in the Charter. The government also recalled that Slovakia was in the past part of international coalitions that supported military interventions without a UN Security Council mandate. These were given the pretext of humanitarian and preventive interventions, in particular in Kosovo and Iraq. "We're facing the consequences today in the form of an unprecedented erosion of the fundamental principles of international and international humanitarian law," added the government. The main tasks of the Board of Peace should include promoting stability, restoring reliable and lawful governance, and ensuring lasting peace in the Gaza Strip and other areas affected or threatened by military conflict. To this end, the Board of Peace may perform peacekeeping functions. Members of the Board of Peace will be invited by its chair, who is to be the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Membership of the Board will be limited to three years from the entry into force of the Board’s Charter and may be extended at the chair's discretion. This limit will not apply to member states that contribute more than 1 billion dollars to the activities of the Board of Peace during their first year of membership. ko/df