Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” aimed at resolving conflicts globally and oversee governance and reconstruction in Gaza, the Kremlin said on Monday, January 19.

“President Putin also received an invitation to join this Board of Peace,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, including Agence France-Presse (AFP). Russia was seeking to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer with Washington, he said, without adding if Putin was inclined to join.

Putin has praised Trump’s peace efforts before

Putin has previously praised Trump’s efforts to resolve conflicts. “He’s really doing a lot to resolve these complex crises, which have lasted for years, even decades,” Putin said last October. Referring to the situation in the Middle East, Putin said: “If we succeed in achieving everything Donald has strived for (…) it will be a historic event.”

For years, Moscow had tried to balance relations with all major players in the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinians. Yet ever since the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s assault on Ukraine, Putin has moved away from Israel, boosting ties with its foes, such as Iran. Moscow has also sought closer relationships with the Gulf states, amid growing Western isolation.

The assault on Ukraine and the war in Gaza have strained Moscow’s traditionally good relations with Israel, which is home to a large Russian-born community. The Kremlin has repeatedly criticised Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks and called for restraint.

“The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe in the full sense of the word,” Putin was quoted as saying by the news agency RIA Novosti, at a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, last May. “Russia, as a friend of the Palestinian people, is trying to provide regular assistance,” the Russian president added.

Many leaders said to be invited

The White House has reached out to various figures around the world to sit on the so-called “Board of Peace,” chaired by the US president himself. The White House says this body will focus on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilization.”

Several foreign leaders, or their advisers, stated that they had received an invitation from the Trump administration to join the board, though they did not necessarily indicate whether they intended to accept it. According to an AFP tally, they include:

• Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama

• Argentine President Javier Milei

• Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

• Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides

• Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

• Jordanian King Abdullah II

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

• Romanian President Nicusor Dan

• Paraguayan President Santiago Pena

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

• Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif