Trump withdraws ‘Board of Peace’ invitation to Carney in widening rift with Canada

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the invitation to Canada to join his “Board of Peace,” days after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address in Davos warning against economic coersion by the world’s superpowers.

“Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday night stateside.

Carney said last week that he intended to join the board but details, including financial terms, had yet to be worked out. States looking for a permanent seat need to pay $1 billion.

In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, Carney said the world’s “middle powers” must band together to resist coercion from the world’s largest powers.

“Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” he said.

While Carney did not name any country, Trump responded later, saying on the sidelines of the forum that “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Hours before Carney’s speech, Trump had posted on social media a digitally-altered image of a map with Greenland, Venezuela and Canada covered with American flag.

Recent events have shown that “the rules-based international order” is effectively dead, while the world’s superpowers “pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion,” Carney said in his speech.

Relations between the two longstanding allies have come under heavy strain in Trump’s second term, who has referred to the neighboring country as the U.S.’ 51st state, besides targeting it with tariffs.

The “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump, was originally conceived to oversee the demilitarization and rebuilding of Gaza strip after a two-year war with Israel. But Trump said he foresees the board to take a wider role that could ultimately rival the United Nations, a remit that has alarmed several U.S. allies.

Trump has garnered the support from regional Middle East countries including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as emerging economies such as Indonesia.

But several global powers and traditional Western U.S. allies have been more cautious, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy and some have rejected the proposal. U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reportedly said that it “won’t be one of the signatories” citing concerns over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to join.

Russia and China are among those invited to join the board. Putin reportedly told the Russian security council that the foreign ministry was still studying the proposal while China has not confirmed whether it will join.

Carney’s WEF address followed his high-profile visit to China last week, where he reached a wide-ranging agreement with President Xi Jinping to reduce tariffs and rebuild ties.

As part of the deal, Beijing cut tariffs on a number of agricultural products from Canada while Ottawa increased the quotas for imports of Chinese electric vehicles into its market with the most-favored-nation tariff rate of 6.1%.

Carney hailed his strategic partnership with Xi, touting the importance of their ties in the face of a “new world order,” in a veiled reference to the global instability caused by Trump’s foreign policy swings and disruptive trade agenda.