Canada's Carney Outlines ‘precondition’ To Joining Trump’s ‘board Of Peace’

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says while he’s accepted Donald Trump’s invitation on principle to join the president’s “Board of Peace” to oversee next steps in Gaza, it’s just unclear now what the $1 billion permanent membership fee is for.

“The president raised it with me a few weeks ago,” he told reporters in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, adding he has yet to absorb all its details including how the Trump-led initiative will be structured and how financing would work.

“Canada wants money to have maximum impact,” Carney said, laying out a condition for Canadian involvement. “We still do not have unimpeded aid flows, humanitarian aid flows at scale to the people in Gaza. … That is a precondition for moving forward on this.”

A Canadian government official clarified to POLITICO that Canada will not pay for a seat on the board — and the U.S. has not asked for money. They were granted anonymity to discuss ongoing discussions about the proposal.

“The proposed Charter is still a document under discussion and many terms and conditions are still being worked out,” said the official, adding Carney signaled his intent to accept the invitation to join “because it is important to have a seat at the table to shape this process from within.”

The White House announced Friday a cadre of leaders who will be led by Trump, the board’s inaugural chair, to oversee the transitional governance of Gaza.

Carney said Trump’s “Board of Peace” came up in his conversation with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani where the pair had an “exchange of views” on the topic.

“I found that we were very aligned about what needs to happen, how it needs to work in order for this to be consistent with a positive outcome,” he said.

Carney is the first sitting Canadian leader to visit Qatar — marking a shift in Canadian foreign policy to deepen trade and defense relations in the Gulf, prompted by an ongoing trade war with the United States that escalated in the past year.

The aggression and unpredictability of Trump 2.0’s global agenda has forced America’s allies to turn to rewrite their foreign policies as the president continues to wield tariffs as a cudgel to push his “America First” agenda on world leaders.

Trump announced new sanctions against eight of America’s closest European allies on Saturday in a bid to use economic coercion to acquire Greenland.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland will face a 10-percent levy on Feb. 1 on “any and all goods sent to the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. The rate increases to 25 percent on June 1 if Greenland is not in American hands by then.

“This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” said Trump.

Carney called the escalation “a serious situation” that has Canada “concerned.”

The Canadian leader is in Doha, fresh off a trip to Beijing to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi and Carney made waves in Washington by signing a preliminary deal to de-escalate a simmering trade war between their two countries.

Xi hailed the meeting as a milestone — a “turnaround of ties.”

Their deal included major cuts to Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola and the introduction of an initial import cap of 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles allowed into Canada annually — marking a break in a 100-percent tariff policy adopted in lockstep with the United States.

The EV policy shift opens the door to future Chinese joint-venture investments in Canada’s auto sector, Carney said.

Several Trump administration officials have been irked by the Canada-China trade detente including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, as well as members of the House Select Committee on China — but the president doesn't seem bothered.

It’s work Carney should be doing for Canada, Trump told reporters on Friday. “If you can get a deal with China, you should do that.”