In what appears to hazve been a major slip up the White House mistakenly listed Belgium as one of the countries participating in the US President Donald Trump's “Board of Peace”. Following the publication of the list, the Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot (Francophone centrist) was quick to respond that Belgium’s inclusion was an error. According to a government source, the United States had confused Belgium with Belarus.
“Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Belgium”. These were the countries named in a list that was published by several US media outlets shortly before the treaty establishing the so-called Board of Peace was signed.
Not long after the list was published, the Belgian Foreign minister Maxime Prévot set the record straight with a message posted on the social media platform X. Mr Prévot wrote that " Belgium has NOT signed the Charter of the Board of Peace. This announcement is incorrect. We wish for a common and coordinated European response. As many European countries, we have reservations to the proposal”.
The American news channel NBC later reported, based on an anonymous source, that Belgium had indeed signed the agreement but backed out at the last minute. However, Belgian government formally deny this, claiming that the White House had confused Belgium with Belarus.