WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump on Thursday (Jan 22) withdrew an invitation for Canada to join his newly constituted Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.
Trump’s about-face follows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he openly decried powerful nations using economic integration as weapons and tariffs as leverage.
“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post directed at Carney.
Neither Carney’s office nor the White House immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment on Thursday evening.
Last week, Carney’s office said he had been invited to serve on the board and planned to accept.
Carney received a rare standing ovation in Davos after the speech, in which he urged nations to accept the end of a rules-based global order.
Canada, which recently signed a trade deal with China, can show how “middle powers” might act together to avoid being victimised by American hegemony, he added.
He also said that the US-led global system of governance was enduring a “rupture”.
“Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”
In an apparent warning against efforts to appease major powers, Carney said countries like Canada can no longer hope that “compliance will buy safety”.
“It won’t,” he said.