BEIJING, Jan 20 (Reuters) – China on Tuesday confirmed that it had been asked to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” an invitation that Washington had extended to dozens of countries in his bid to launch a global initiative aimed at resolving conflicts.
But Beijing, which recently struck a delicate trade truce with Washington, stopped short of saying whether it would accept or decline the invitation.
Governments from around the world have so far reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join the initiative, which diplomats say could undermine the United Nations.
The initiative would kick off by addressing the Gaza conflict and then be expanded to deal with other situations. The initiative’s board would be chaired for life by Trump. Member states would be limited to three-year terms unless they paid $1 billion each.
“The Chinese side has received the invitation from the U.S.,” said Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, at a regular news conference.
He declined to comment when asked if China would accept the invitation.
Asked how China would evaluate Trump’s presidency in the past year, especially in light of his stance on Venezuela and threat to annex Greenland, the spokesperson refrained from giving an assessment.
“Over the past year, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but have achieved overall dynamic stability,” said Guo, explaining that occasional variability in their relationship could be expected.
China is willing to work with the U.S. on further stabilising ties while safeguarding its own interests, Guo said.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ethan Wang; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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