Will India attend the first meeting of US President Donald Trump’s Peace Council, widely seen as an alternative to the United Nations in global conflict management? New Delhi is reviewing Washington’s invitation, India’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Shehbaz Sharif with Donald Trump for the Board of Peace Charter at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2026. (File photo by Christian Boxy/Bloomberg)India’s unfriendly neighbour, Pakistan, has already announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is visiting the US on February 19 for the BOP meeting.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a press conference on Thursday, “As far as the Peace Board is concernedwe received an invitation from the US government to join We are currently considering and reviewing this proposal.
Pakistan announced on the same day that Prime Minister Sharif will attend the meeting convened in Washington next week.
Pak is among the first to join the BoPThe BoP originally meant the reconstruction of Palestinian territories, mainly Gaza, devastated by Israeli military strikes. Trump later cast it as a global power, with no reference to Gaza or any specific conflict in its charter.
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None of the countries as large as the G7 members, Still signed up.
Pakistan, however, was the first of nearly two dozen countries to sign up to offer Trump its offer The big photo-op at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told a weekly press briefing, “Yes, I can confirm that the Prime Minister will attend the upcoming Peace Board (BOP) meeting. He will be accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister. About the other members of the delegation and the engagement of the delegation in the US, we will inform you in due course.”
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Location of IndiaIn Delhi, the MEA spokesperson reiterated India’s position on Gaza: “As you are aware, India has consistently supported efforts that promote peace, stability and dialogue in West Asia. Our Prime Minister also welcomes all initiatives that pave the way for long-term and lasting peace in the entire region, including Gaza.”
Jaiswal said the government is currently reviewing the invitation and did not elaborate on whether India will attend the upcoming meeting.
Pakistan’s spokesman said Islamabad had joined the BoP “in simple faith” and “not in isolation, but as part of the collective voice of eight Islamic-Arab countries”.
“Our collective voice resonates at the Peace Board, and we will continue to strive for the rights, peace and prosperity of the Palestinian people with the goal of a long-term solution to the Palestinian problem – the creation of a State of Palestine along the pre-1967 borders with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital,” he said.
Indo-US relations are back on track this month With a trade agreement, After months of Trump’s tariff-linked aggression and apparent sympathy with Pakistan. Delhi questions, however, Trump’s condition that India stop buying Russian oil to “stop the war in Ukraine”.
Pak on US ‘role’ in last year’s conflict with IndiaMeanwhile, the Pakistani spokesperson also said that Islamabad was “grateful” for the role of the US during the military conflict with India in May last year – A “role” that India has denied to the US.
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Trump, in an interview with Fox Business last Tuesday, repeated his claim that he stopped a war between India and Pakistan last year, which he said could have turned nuclear. “I said, ‘If you don’t settle this war, I’m going to impose tariffs on you, because I don’t want to see people killed,'” Trump claimed, repeating the claim for perhaps the 80th time since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that the two neighbors had agreed to a “full and immediate” cease-fire following talks in Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention since Pakistan launched Operation Sindur against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7 last year in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
