Davos focuses on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ plan (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Let's take you to Christian Fraser on Davos. Christian, what an extraordinary couple of days we've had with these decisions being made that could affect large swathes of the world. Let's go through them, shall we, one by one? And we should start with what's happened in the past few hours, President Trump's Board of Peace. Take us through what we've actually learnt about that this morning.

[00:00:25] Speaker 2: Well, I think you've characterised it very well. It's been a dizzying few days here in Davos. And the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, was talking about that this morning. The world order, he says, is changing at a breathtaking speed. And I guess an element of that is this Board of Peace, which some are concerned is replacing the mandate of the United Nations and the overarching theme and responsibilities of the UN. I suppose, charitably, you could say that the president is a man of action. He is driving things forward on a whole range of issues. But one of the concerns, I think, all the way along here is under what mandate is he doing this? And there's also a lack of detail, Lucy. Wherever you look, in whatever he's driving, whether it be on the Middle East, in Gaza, which, of course, is fiendishly complicated, on Venezuela and how the oil is being sold and where the money goes and how it's reinvested, on Ukraine, which we're told today is just one beat away from an agreement between Putin and Zelensky, and on Iran, a lot of detail that we don't know. And I think that is the concern, that a president who wants action is working outside the construct of the UN and providing us with not enough detail on how things will move forward and what sort of oversight there will be over that. But let's have a listen, in the first instance, to what he says about this Board of Peace and how it will operate.

[00:01:59] Speaker 3: And now we have one of the most important meetings of all the official formation of what is known as the Board of Peace. I want to thank the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner and their extraordinary work. I mean, they have done an amazing job. We have peace in the Middle East. Nobody thought that was possible. We've settled eight wars, and I believe another one's coming pretty soon. You know what that is? The one that I thought was going to be an easy one has turned out to be probably the most difficult. Last month, 29,000 people died, mostly soldiers, in Ukraine, Russia. Think of that, 29,000, 27,000 in the month before, 26,000 in the month before that. It's terrible. But we have meetings, and we think we're making a lot of progress.

[00:03:04] Speaker 2: China has said in the last hour that it has had an invitation to join the Board of Peace. The Americans are saying that President Putin has already agreed that he will join it. That is still to be confirmed, incidentally, by the Kremlin. But are they going to be happy to sit alongside Donald Trump with him there as the chairman in a subordinate role, him there as the commander-in-chief, dictating what happens within the Board of Peace? That is very much an open question. And then, of course, there is the Europeans. The foreign secretary for the UK, Yvette Cooper, was saying today that they're going to take a beep and see how this board is going to work. Of course, they feel very uncomfortable that President Putin has been invited to it. They see that as normalising his behaviour. And a real paradox, if you will, that the man who's waging war in Ukraine is sitting there on a Board of Peace. So all that to be discussed tonight within the remit of the European Council summit in Brussels. But Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, says, look, give it a chance. Don't be cynical about this, because the president wants to move things in the right direction. He wants to get things done. And so often, he says, we come to these summits, like this one here in Dallas, people talk, it becomes a talking shop, and things don't get done.

[00:04:20] Speaker 4: Now we have this Board of Peace, who I believe's possibilities are endless. Obviously, with a focus, first and foremost, on making sure that this peace deal in Gaza becomes enduring. And I know this president has it as his highest priority, and will give it everything he has to make sure that this is successful. I also want to acknowledge the extraordinary leaders that are here today. This is not just a Board of Peace, this is a Board of Action. Just like President Trump is a president of action. A lot of times, people like to give speeches. I've been to many of these forums, and they're not useless, and they're not, you know, not, they have utility in many cases. But oftentimes, in international affairs, we often find ourselves at events where people are reading these scripted statements, these strongly worded letters that they put out, but no action, nothing happens. This is a group of leaders that are about action. And the president of the United States is a president of action, of getting things done. And today is the beginning of that, of a new era and a new stage that we think is so important as a model to the rest of the world of what is possible. And clearly, the focus is right now on Gaza, and making sure that the plan that's about to be presented to you here today, this vision for the future of Gaza, this vision for the future of the region, is not just possible and promising. It is our destiny if we put the time and the effort that it requires, as I know this board will do. But I also think it will serve as an example of what's possible in other parts of the world. Without losing focus on what's before us now, this is what's possible for other places and other conflicts that seem impossible to solve right now.

[00:05:49] Speaker 1: So the US, very optimistic about this border peace, Marco Rubio and President Trump in particular. President Trump saying he hopes this will forge what he called a glorious and everlasting peace for the Middle East. We will take you live to Jerusalem very, very shortly. But Christian, we must update our viewers on the other big development that's happening right now in Davos, and that's that President Zelensky, he wasn't going to come because of the energy crisis back at home, but he has now flown into Davos today. What do we expect to come out of these talks that he's going to be having with President Trump?

[00:06:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, his diary has been reformatted because he'd made it clear he wasn't coming because he didn't think he was gonna get a sit down with Donald Trump. And he's been busy dealing with the energy crisis at home, which of course has been exacerbated in recent days by the Russian attacks on the energy infrastructure. But he will be mindful that Steve Whitkoff is heading off to Moscow to talk to Vladimir Putin. And he will also know that those who want to influence the president have to sit in front of him. So he's helter-skeltered his way here to Davos this afternoon. I think they're meeting around now, and they will be getting into the detail of this agreement, which the Americans say is only one step away from being concluded. We should, again, urge some caution on that because the Americans have said that before. But here's what Steve Whitkoff had to say about it.

[00:07:14] Speaker 5: I think we've made a lot of progress. I think in the beginning of this process, there was a little bit of confusion. I was going to Moscow quite a bit. But I think it was important that we go there because we're at the end now. And I actually am optimistic. I spent the evening with David last night, with General Butinov, who's now Vice President Butinov, and Rustam. They've been amazing, by the way. To the Ukrainian people here, you have an amazing negotiating team. We spent a lot of time together. I don't know how much, but it could be 100 hours together since Geneva. It's literally that comprehensive. And I think we've got it down to one issue. And we have discussed iterations of that issue. And that means it's solvable. So if both sides want to solve this, we're going to get it solved. That's my view. And I told the president that last night. And last night, Mark, I think, and it informs on this, the president sent out the tweet. We had a great meeting about NATO, about the European-American alliance, which informs on this conflict, too, I think, as we discussed. So I just feel encouraged. David, you're great to work with. And Rustam, and by the way, I want to mention President Zelensky. Because he's been on this issue. He's available. He's accessible. Whenever there's a need to call him to get a steer, we get on the phone with him. And of course, as everyone knows with President Trump, just as he said yesterday, Mark, with you, when we were talking about direct negotiations, he said, well, can I handle the negotiation directly?

[00:08:58] Speaker 4: We'd love to.

[00:08:58] Speaker 5: So the president is always accessible as well. Just the way he is. So we're off to Moscow tonight.

[00:09:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, let's see if that warm embrace of President Zelensky extends into the meeting this afternoon and into the days ahead. We all remember what happened at the Oval Office back in February last year. A couple of things to mention. We talked about the expanding remit of this board of peace into areas that concern Ukraine. Look out this afternoon for the United States president putting pressure on Zelensky to join this board of peace. Is this a way to construct a meeting between the two leaders? The Americans have had some difficulty in getting them in the same room together. And the other issue is that there really is no deal unless President Zelensky gets the security assurances that he's been looking for. But how much thought does he put in those security assurances, given what has happened this week around the issue of Greenland? The president made a trade deal with the Europeans, Lucy, in the summer, then turned on a dime and threatened tariffs on eight of his key allies. What assurances does President Zelensky have that the United States would stand by these security guarantees when the rubber hits the road?

[00:10:19] Speaker 1: And what is remarkable, Christian, is we've got to this point in the program on news now, and we haven't actually talked about Greenland. This time yesterday, that's all you and I were discussing after those mounting tensions have slightly dissipated, with President Trump saying that he's got this framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland. We don't know those details yet, but we have been hearing from the Danish prime minister. She said they're going to engage in dialogue with allies. They're promising to strengthen Arctic security as well, as long as her country's territorial integrity is respected.