President Trump Participates in the Board of Peace Event

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance; Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff; and the Executive Board Member, Jared Kushner. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Well, thank you very much. This is a big day, and lots of people watching, especially from other countries. The leaders of, as you know, the other countries because we have a large group of leaders, and the ones that aren't here are watching on Zoom. I hope they enjoy it. And the press, we appreciate it very much. You've been so respectful. You've been so respectful of what we're doing. What we're doing is very simple: peace. It's called the Board of Peace, and it's all about an easy word to say but a hard word to produce: peace. But we're going to produce it, and we've been doing a really good job. And some of these leaders that are with us have helped me very much during just this first year. We have a first year like probably no other ever in our country, because we settled eight wars and I think a ninth to come. It turned out to be a tougher one; I thought that was going to be the easiest one. But with war, you never know what's easy and what's not so easy. But we've had a great relationship, and I've become friendly with so many of the people. And I appreciate you being here. These are great people, these are great leaders, and the people that are watching by close circuit and open circuit in many cases, they're so proud of it. They want it to be open. But they've become incredible friends of mine. And you know, we rebuilt our country in my first term, and now we're at a point that the United States has never seen before. We broke 50,000 on the Dow; they said that would take four years. We broke 7,000 on the S&P; they said you couldn't do that within four years, it would be impossible. And when I came in, they were all saying, if you could get to anywhere close to 40, 45,000, it would be an amazing achievement over four years. Well, we hit 50,000 in the first year and we hit 7,000, which was actually tougher to do according to the Wall Street geniuses. We hit 7,000 in the first year. They said it could take four or five years, they'd be very happy, it would have been a great job. We did it in one. But we're doing a great job. Board of Peace is one of the most important and consequential things I think that I'll be involved in. We've been involved in a lot, and really, I've been involved in a lot with the people up here. We work together on ending wars with their country. Some of the wars were 32 years long, 32, 34, and a 37. That's a long time. And we ended it in about two days each one of those. But we have some other work to do and we're getting it done. Gaza is very complex. It's been amazing. I want to thank Steve and Jared for an amazing job. Marco is over there watching everybody; he's fantastic. And JD, what a job. They're all doing this as a team. I think it's the best team ever assembled, and you see that by the results. So today is a tremendous honor to welcome you all to the United States Institute of Peace for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. Very important. I believe it's the most consequential board certainly in terms of power and in terms of prestige. There's never been anything close because these are the greatest world leaders. Almost everybody's accepted, and the ones that haven't will be. Some are playing a little cute. It doesn't work. You can't play cute with me. But they're playing a little bit, but they're all joining. Everybody, most of them very immediately. A few that we really don't want because they're trouble; we'll take care of them. But this is the most prestigious board ever put together. You know, I've seen some great corporate boards, I've seen some great boards period. It's peanuts compared to this board because we have virtually every one is the head of a country other than Gianni, but he's the head of soccer, so that's not so bad, right, Gianni? I like your job the best, I think. And by the way, your World Cup has set every single ticket record in the history of soccer, in the history. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. The sales are virtually complete. Nobody's ever seen anything, so congratulations. You made a good decision. We did it together. Thank you, Gianni. Great guy. So I want to thank the many leaders and dignitaries who have traveled great distances and lengths for the important gathering that we're at right now. This building was built for peace, and nobody knew what to name it. And then Marco named it after me. I had nothing to do with it, I swear I didn't. I swear I had no idea. They said there's a surprise coming. I thought they were going to give me a lot of money or something, maybe cash. You can always use some extra cash. But I came and they stopped the beautiful beast. I got out, very safely, I'm sure. And looked up and there it said Donald J. Trump on the building. And when I say that that was, had nothing to do—nobody believes it and that's okay, but I appreciated it. That was Marco and JD and a group got together and they did that, and I just thought it was very nice. And it makes me work harder. We're going to have to work harder. We're going to have to make this building much more important. They built—it's brand new. They built it for peace, but nobody occupied it, you know? Nobody knew what the purpose of it was. But the architecture is so beautiful and it's—it was with the meeting rooms, the reception rooms, it's really amazing. Who would think that it was built without anybody in mind or anything in mind and then the State Department took it over. They liked it. Marco came over one day, he saw this, he said this building is great. And he actually claimed it, right? He claimed it. And that's what he does. Where is Marco? Marco, is that true? You claimed this building. You took it away from about five groups that wanted it and it was—that was done very quickly, very methodically. But it was really—really built so beautifully in such a beautiful building. But we work together to ensure the brighter future for the people of Gaza, the Middle East, and the entire world. I think that the Board of Peace, because it's mostly leaders and unbelievably respected people, but mostly leaders of Middle Eastern countries, countries from all over the world. And they've been very generous with money also. And the United States, which I'll say in a moment, is also very generous with money. Because there's nothing more important than peace. And there's nothing less expensive than peace. You know, when you go to wars, it costs you a hundred times what it costs to make peace. And we have a man at the end right there that's smiling because you learned that after 30 years of fighting, right? 30 years of fighting, we got it done. I want to thank you very much. That was—it's a great thing you did. You and your new friend. They came to my office and they said I've been fighting for 22 years. Now you're there for 23 years, right? But I've been fighting for 22 years. That's all I've done is fight this gentleman. And his counterpart was there for seven years. He said, I've been here for seven years, all I've done is fight this gentleman. And we had it worked out in about 24 hours, right? And it's been a good peace and I think they've become friends. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that, but I think so. I think they've become friends, right? Right. Stand up, stand up. These are two tough cookies, too. You think that was easy? It wasn't easy. These are two tough people, good people, but tough people. But you know, we're in the Oval Office and we're getting near, but the one was at one side of the room. I have two chairs right in front of the desk, the beautiful resolute desk. One's over here, one's on the other side of the room. I said, folks, could you get a little closer? Well, they felt very uncomfortable. You know, they've been killing each other for 32 years. So I say, can you get a little closer? After one hour, they were right next to each other. We made a deal. They hugged, they signed, and we had peace with two very important countries. And I'll never forget it. So they started off a little weak and they ended up really strong, and you can be very proud of yourselves. It was a beautiful thing to see. Thank you. Look at—look at that. Do you believe it? 32 years. Thank you very much. But we're honored to be joined today by Prime Minister Rama of Albania. President, where is President Milei? You're another one, I'll tell you. Where is President Milei? I had endorsed him. I'm not supposed to be endorsing people, but I endorsed him. When I like people, you know, I've had a very good record of endorsing candidates within the United States. But now I endorse foreign leaders, including Viktor Orbán who's here, and others. And I endorsed this gentleman Milei. He was a little behind in the polls, he ended up winning in a landslide. I just endorsed the Prime Minister of Japan. She was in a tight race but was probably going to win, and she won in the largest number in the history of Japan. So she likes me a lot. Но uh, it was an honor and you're doing great. Oh look, they're sitting right next, Viktor. I think ultimately I'm going to end up endorsing—hey look, as long as it works, it's okay with me. Но the endorsement seems to be working in foreign countries too, so that's good. But nice to have you both, Viktor. Nice to have you both. Very proud of you. The Prime Minister of another really just a great guy, Pashinyan of Armenia. President Aliyev of Azerbaijan. I love saying that name now, you know? At the beginning it was giving me a hard time, now I love saying it. It's a beautiful name. I love it. His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain. Bahrain. Thank you, thank you, where are you? Where are you? He's so rich he can sit there—he can sit wherever the hell he wants. You know, he can sit up in the corner, he can sit up top. He might take a piece of this building, Marco. He'll take 25% of the building for about 6 billion. Thank you very much, and you've been very generous also. We appreciate it. Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia. Raise your hand wherever you may be because, yeah, hi, how are you? Congratulations. That was another one, right? We did a good job with that one. Prime Minister Madbouly of Egypt. Thank you very much, and say hello to the General/President. Okay. Prime Minister Orbán of Hungary who has my complete and total endorsement for election. Not everybody in Europe loves that endorsement, but that's okay. He does an unbelievable job. He's done an incredible job on immigration, unlike some countries that have hurt themselves, but they're working on it. Но I—I just want to let you know you have my total and complete endorsement and I'm putting it out, I already did, but I'm putting it out again. And you're coming up with an election and I think you should be good. I'll tell you, Milei did pretty well, he was a little down, right? And then he—he ended up winning in a landslide, so that's pretty good. You're going to do great, Viktor. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. You run a great country. A man that I really like an awful lot is—he's definitely tough. I don't want to fight him. President Prabowo of Indonesia. Thank you very much, please. This is a big guy, I tell you. I said, how many people in Indonesia? He said like 240 million. I said no, no, say it again, how many? It's a big country you have, and you do a great job and respected by everybody. And thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much, Mr. President. President Tokayev of Kazakhstan. Thank you very much. What a country that is. It's a wonderful country and a rich country in case anybody has any questions. We have some very rich people here today. President Osmani of Kosovo. President, thank you very much. Great—great job you're doing too. Thank you very much. Prime Minister Sharif. I like this man. Of Pakistan. Because there was some fighting going on when I got to know him and you field marshal, general, great, great general, great field marshal, great guy. And uh, I got to meet the Prime Minister and he said in front of our Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, who's right here, he said, you know, nobody knows this, but I believe that President Trump saved 25 million lives when he—when he stopped the war between us and India, right? He said—you made that statement. I said 25 million lives, could have been much more actually. Но it—it was really a beautiful thing. You said that in front of a group of people that was—they walked out, they don't think about it, but you're talking about that kind of lives. That war was raging, planes were being shot down, right? And it was uh, Pakistan and India and I got on the phone with both of them and I knew them a little bit. I knew uh Prime Minister Modi very well actually, but I got to know Pakistan through a little trade. They were trying to make too good a deal and I got a little upset with them and in the end they got what they wanted, right? And they made a good deal and I got to like them, the Prime Minister, the field marshal who is a tough man, a tough good fighter, right? A good serious fighter. I like good fighters actually. And when I heard that they were fighting, I pick up a certain newspaper, I won't tell you which one because it's fake news generally. Но I picked up this newspaper and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse and worse and planes were being—many planes were shot down. It was—it was all out. And I called them and I said listen, I'm not doing trade deals with you two guys if you don't settle this up. They said no, no, no, that has—both of them, they didn't want to do that. I said no, it has to—if you don't do it, I'm not doing a trade deal. We're not doing a trade deal. And they do a lot of business with the United States and they sort of softened up all of a sudden. Then all of a sudden I read where there was a little bit of a pull back by one, then the other, and all of a sudden we worked out a deal, right? Но I said, if you fight, I'm going to put 200% tariffs on each of your countries, which essentially makes you not allowed—you know, you can't do any business. And one of them, I won't say which one, said no, can't do that. They both wanted to fight. Но when it came to money, there's nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, I guess we don't want to fight. And we solved that deal in two, three days, right? And we did, we saved—these are two very powerful nations, these are two nuclear nations. And I don't want to say what was going to happen, but you know, bad things happen. So Prime Minister, I want to thank you because that was a big—that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, oh well they weren't fighting, they were fighting. 11 jets were shot down, very expensive jets. And uh they were all in, both of them were all in and now they're not and uh I think we'll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think you're going to have—you know, it's—a lot of progress was made even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also, he's a great man, he's a great guy, they're all great. Но I was very proud of it. President Peña of Paraguay is here. President, President, thank you very much. Young handsome guy. It's always nice to be young and handsome. Doesn't mean we have to like you. I don't like young handsome men. Women? Yes, I like. Men? No, I don't have any interest. Good, that's right, that's right. Thank you very much, you're doing a great job too. His Excellency Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar. A just a great man, please, a great man and highly respected. And he's working with a man who is amazing. I always say he needs a public relations agency because you do so much good and they have you down as evil. And you're not evil, you help us so much and you're such a good ally. And I just want people to know that. And the Emir is incredible, smart, smart as you can be, a great leader, and he cares so much for the people. And he cares so much for the Middle East. So I want to thank you very much and send my regards. Your country has been a great help, surprising to some of the people writing out there, but now they'll start changing their tune because it's true. I only tell the truth. Prime Minister Dan of Romania. Wonderful people. The Romanian people are fantastic, fantastic people. I like you, you're fantastic. And a lot of them come and work in this country and help us in this country, as you know. And it's uh they are just really—really solid people. President Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan who is where? There he is and a friend of mine. We've got one of the most difficult names in history but that's okay, it doesn't matter. Но uh your country's doing great, you're doing great, and uh just no problems. Every time I see him, nope, we're doing good, no problems. And General Secretary To Lam of Vietnam. Vietnam is incredible as a country and as a force and it's an honor to have you. A really great honor to have you. A lot of respect, a lot of respect for your country. We also want to express my gratitude to Vice President JD Vance who is a fantastic man, he's a fantastic talent. He was a great student, he went to one school, he graduated—you know most people if you watch some of the people that were at the event in Munich, uh they didn't graduate quickly from college. They had everything they could do. There was one young attractive woman, she was unable to answer questions and uh she didn't do so well like JD did in college. JD graduated in a four and a half year college in two years. And then he went to Yale and he graduated at the top of his class, went to the military grade. But when he went to Yale there was one person that was marginally ahead of him, so he married her. Can you believe it? He married the person that was ahead. I don't know, I always like to say JD was first and Usha was second because I get a little uncomfortable when I say the word—but he's been incredible, he's a brilliant guy and a great guy and he's been my friend. All of our people, we have a fantastic group of people, our cabinet members, everything, many of them here. Но JD's been great. Thank you very much. He gets a little bit tough on occasion, we got to slow him down just a little bit on occasion. He says his mind. Now then we have the opposite extreme. We have your friend sitting in the back, your good—your best friend sitting in the back is Marco. Marco does it with a velvet love, but it's a kill, right? The result is the same, they do it very differently. And Marco, you really did yourself proud two days ago in Munich. In fact, so proud that I almost terminated his employee. Because they were saying, why can't Trump do this? I do, but I say it differently. Но Marco, uh don't do any better than you did, please. Because if you do, you're out of here. Но no, he got it was—I want my guys to do great and the acclaim he's gotten and the acclaim JD gets is—is great. We have smart people. And when you see the representatives there like uh Gavin Newsom, he didn't know what he was doing. They didn't even know why he was—he didn't know why he was there. Or AOC, she was unable to answer a simple question and uh she could have said well I'm studying it and I'll report back to you next week. You know, you can get away with that, but she just went uh uh it's actually—I think it could be a career-ending answer because for 25 years anybody running against her I think Susie is going to use that—that little piece. It was not good, it was not good. That was not a natural. So I want to thank JD, I want to thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio, they're extraordinary. I want to thank special envoy for peace, Steve Witkoff, who has been unbelievable. You know I took Steve because I was a developer in New York really successful, actually much more successful than Steve but I don't want to say that. I'm not going to say that, Gianni, I—I refuse to say it. Но I saw—I saw something in Steve. Steve's a great negotiator, everybody loved him. All these developers and they're tough, you know, New York developers tend to be on the tough side. And uh you know, most of them hate each other like a lot of the people in this room hate each other. You know, sort of natural I guess, but we're bringing love back into the room like the old days. But everybody loves Steve. Every developer, the worst most evil people, horrible human beings actually, and they love Steve. So I remember this and we had some conflicts to put it mildly in the world and I said Steve, how would you like to be Henry Kissinger Jr. that doesn't leak? And I said are you a leaker, Steve? No, he didn't even know what the word meant, and it's true. I always say Henry Kissinger, who was one of the great leakers of all time by the way, Richard Nixon said to him, Henry, Henry, who's leaking all this stuff? I don't know, Mr. President. It was Henry, it was always—these are little stories I like telling you. Но uh Steve has been unbelievable. Everybody likes him. Uh Ukraine loves him, Europe loves him, Russia loves him. I mean, there's nothing wrong with this. He goes to see President Putin, didn't know Putin. I set him up a meeting to see. I said, how's Steve doing? Sir, he's still inside. Oh, that was an hour. I call back, tell Steve to call me when he's finished, I want to find out what the hell is going on, we want to end that war. Sir, he's still inside. Three hours, four hours. They were together for four hours the first meeting. That's talent. And they get along. I mean, people like or don't like Putin or Zelenskyy, they get along. Same thing with Zelenskyy. I mean they—they all love Steve and Steve's doing a great job. That's a tough one, that's a much tougher one. I would have thought that uh some of the ones that we settled that are up here would have been uh would have been—I thought this would be easy because I have a very good relationship with President Putin, I have a very good relationship with President Xi. I'm going to be going to China in April, it's going to be—it's going to be a wild one. I said, but we have to put on the biggest display you've ever had in the history of China. You know, last time I went to China, President Xi, he treated me so well, he gave me a display, I never saw so many soldiers all the same height, exactly the same height within a quarter of an inch. You can do that when you have 1.4 billion people, you know, lots of shoulders. Everybody was within about 1/8 of an inch the same height. I said, if they put their helmets down, you could have played pool on the top of their heads. And uh it was pretty amazing, but I said you got to top it. He said, I'll top it. We're going to top it. We're going to have a lot of the people, most of the fake news back there is going to be going. So we have uh Steve has done a great job, and then a little bit later on we brought Jared in. Jared was responsible for the Abraham Accords, which is incredible, nobody else could have done that. Very smart guy, and uh we're making Jared an envoy also, envoy of peace. They're both envoys of peace, and you couldn't get two—I tell you what, I watch these two guys, I say at least we're covered from an IQ standpoint, these two guys walk into a room and but people like them both, you know? They're good people and they like them both and they've had some very good meetings. They've had some very good meetings, very interesting meetings having to do with—as you know, uh Iran is a hotspot right now and they're meeting, and they have a good relationship with the representatives of Iran and you know, good talks are being had. It's proven to be over the years not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things happen. But we have to make a meaningful deal, but they have a great relationship with the representatives of Iran, they have a great relationship with uh the other one that they're really working on now because so many of these—I mean, as an example Kosovo-Serbia, I did that one. Could you stand up if any of you guys are when you're here just stand up for a second. Kosovo-Serbia, stand up. What a job. Thank you very much, we appreciate it. So good. And you're getting along, and when you don't get along you'll call me and I'll—we'll get it solved, right? We'll get it solved. Uh thank you very much, really good. And then again Pakistan and India, that was a big one and just uh I think you should actually stand. Come, please, stand just for a second. Pakistan and India. Thank you very much, and Prime—I spoke to Prime Minister Modi, he's excited, he's watching us right now. Egypt and Ethiopia, we're going to get that—you know, there's a little dam that got built, a little dam like maybe the largest dam in the world, built and financed of course by the United States brilliantly, and uh having a little trouble getting water to the Nile. Но uh that's—not that's a tough situation, but we're going to get that solved. Armenia and Azerbaijan, we talked about and again thank you fellas very much, great job, great job. Thank you. Cambodia and Thailand uh so incredible what you did that you—you got together and it all worked out. They're watching, they're watching right now on close circuit. Thank you very much, and thank you. That was a big one, Cambodia and Thailand. These are nasty fighters, I have to tell you, these fighters are nasty. Uh now we talk about—you talk nasty fighter, you're nice guys compared to this. Congo and Rwanda, that was and we've got them pretty peaceful. There's little flare-ups every once in a while. I'll get a call once a week, sir, there's a flare-up in the Congo again. We'll get it straightened out, right, Susie? We get it straightened out. And Israel, as you know, with uh you could say Israel in numerous countries if you want to really know the truth, but Israel and Iran and we'll see where that goes. But when you think of Israel, we have—we've done the biggest thing of all, we have peace in the Middle East right now. That's bigger than people said it couldn't be done for 3,000 years. They've been talking about Middle East they said it couldn't be done, and uh you look at what's happened on Gaza. And one of the keys to it was when we took those beautiful magnificent, we just ordered 22 more of them, uh updated model, the B-2 bombers are incredible. I never understood the B-2 bomber, I'd watch it's a wing, and I've never quite understood that, Gianni, I'd look at it I said it was beautiful but what does it do? It carries very big bombs. And uh it went into Iran and it totally decimated the nuclear—nuclear potential. And when it did, when it decimated that, uh all of a sudden we had peace in the Middle East because nobody—there was a black cloud hanging over the Middle East and if that wasn't done, uh that cloud would have been there. And countries like Saudi Arabia, countries like Qatar, countries like—nobody could have signed. You could have had that threat, nobody could have had—you couldn't had peace in the Middle East. So now we may have to take it a step further or we may not, maybe we're going to make a deal, you're going to be—you're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days. But this meeting today is proof with determined leadership nothing is impossible. When I took office the war in Gaza was raging with thousands of people being killed and no end in sight. Today, thanks to unrelenting diplomacy and the commitment of many of the great people in this room, we have 59 countries signed up on Gaza. Think of that. We have uh it's amazing. Но all the people many—really so many in this room, the war in Gaza is over. It's over. There are little flames, little flames. Hamas has been—I think they're going to give up their weapons, which is what they promised. If they don't, it'll be—you know, they'll be harshly met, very harshly met. They don't want that. You know all the stuff like they don't mind dying, they told me that's not true. I ever hear it said, oh they don't mind dying, no they don't want to die. They say we don't want to die. People don't want to die. The ceasefire was held and every last remaining hostage both living and dead has been returned back home. Think of that, that was an impossibility. And we did hundreds of hostages, but the last 20, and I always said to Steve and Jared, I said the last 20 are going to be very tough, very, very tough. And we got them back. We got the living back and then we only got about 16 of the dead and we said, well you got to get them all, you promised them all. And they dug and dug and dug, you can imagine it's a job that's brutal. And Hamas really did a lot of that work and you got to give them credit for that. They uh they brought the last—last one home a week ago and we got all 28 of them living and dead. The amazing thing because I've never seen anything quite like it: the—the parents of the dead, they knew their boy was dead, in this case boy is all boys, men, but to the parents, boys. They knew their boy was dead, they wanted that dead body as much as if he was alive. And when they got them back there was great sadness but there was great joy too. They wanted it as much as the people that got their sons back alive. But we got a lot of people before those 20, Steve, what nobody talks about, but you know, hundreds of people. Uh we did a good job and you guys did a fantastic job. I want to thank every nation that helped us achieve this monumental breakthrough, saving countless lives and really bringing peace and bringing the concept of peace because nobody thought peace in the Middle East—I've always heard peace in the Middle East is impossible. And it's turned out not to be. And we do have some work to do with Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapons, very simple. They can't have—you can't have peace in the Middle East if they have a nuclear weapon. And they can't have a nuclear weapon and they've been told that very strongly. Since the hard-won ceasefire of last October, the United States and our partners have facilitated the delivery of vast amounts of humanitarian aid, numbers that nobody's ever seen before. In November the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved the Board of Peace, and last month in Davos we welcomed over two dozen members to this very important new organization. And we are very closely working with the United Nations. In fact, I'm going to speak to the Secretary General in a little while, was a good man and I've had a good relationship, other than in my last speech they did turn off my teleprompter. I got up there, my teleprompter didn't work. I'm sitting in front of all of you people and more and I had no teleprompter. I knew I was in trouble because I'm walking up, you know, the teleprompters are over here. I had the most beautiful speech ready and I was all set to knock 'em dead. First I had an escalator that stopped, you know that. It's going up, boom. It's lucky my movie star first lady was in front of me because I put my hand on a certain part of her body and I was able to stop my fall. Otherwise because she had no trouble, I said boy that was a very sharp stop, Gianni. So I said that was strange, I—I've been on a lot of escalators, that's never happened before. Usually it stops very slowly, this was just boom. But our first lady was right in the proper location for me, I'm waving to people and uh she was holding on a little tighter, she knew what was happening. She did, she said—she said that's a very successful movie out right now, like number one, can you believe this? And uh she's a big movie—big movie star. And I always say it's trouble because I always say there's not room in one family for two stars. I told her that, I said we can't have two stars in one family. So I don't know what that means, but it's not—it's not good. But it is good because we're proud of her. She did a—people in the United States love the first lady and she did the movie and it's become the biggest-selling documentary in 20 years. Can you believe? The theaters are all packed, women especially, they go back and they see it two or three times, four times. But together we're committed to achieving a Gaza that is properly governed throughout—the whole area's going to be—you know, so many countries that have really nothing to do with the Middle East but they may be somewhat close by, they're all involved. They want to go in and fight. They tell me all the time, we'd like to send soldiers to fight if it's necessary. And I don't think it's going to be necessary. We have two countries that want to go in and do a number on Hamas. I said I really don't think it's—I hope it's not going to be necessary because they made a promise and they promised me, get rid of their weapons. Looks like they're going to be doing that, but we'll have to find out. But it's no longer a hotbed of radicalism and terror. And to end that we have today and I'm pleased to announce that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait have all contributed more than 7 billion dollars toward the relief package. That's great. Thank you fellas, thank you. And many more are contributing too, so the numbers are—you know this just started, this is our first meeting. But every dollar spent is an investment in stability and the hope of new and harmonious—it's a region that's so important, it's so vibrant, it's so incredible, the people are so incredible, but we want to have a harmonious Middle East. The Middle East is amazing. So many friends in the Middle East, they're so smart. Sometimes they're too energetic, that's the problem, you know, a lot of people aren't energetic, sometimes they're a little too energetic. These are great people. The world is now waiting on Hamas and that's taking place and uh it's the only thing that's right now standing in the way. We have Lebanon with uh certain things that we're working on that are very important. We have to solve the problem of Lebanon but it's uh relatively small in terms of what we're—what's been done. And again the key was getting rid of the nuclear potential because Iran would have had a nuclear weapon based on everything we found out since within one month. We can't let that happen. So many of our friends in Europe are attending today and we're eager to have them become full members. They all want to become full members and we've had a great response from Europe. And Europe is, you know, it's where I come from, where so many people come from that are in the United States, but we have a great relationship with Europe. We have a great head of NATO. He is a fantastic man and he's doing a great job, really great job. I'm excited to announce that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace. Oh, I thought when I saw this note, I'm excited to announce that Norway, I thought they were going to just say that they're giving me the Nobel Prize. Oh, this is less exciting. Oh. It says I'm excited to announce that Norway and I'm saying oh great, I'm getting the Nobel Prize, finally. Finally they got it right. But I don't care. I don't care about Nobel Prize. I care about saving lives just so you understand. We play and we all, you know, do what we have to do. I only have one thing: I don't want to see people killed from parts of the world that are very far away from the United States. And if I have an ability to turn off—to turn off wars, I want to use that ability because it's people, millions of people. It's like the Prime Minister said, 25 million people maybe, and that's a small number compared to what it could have been if you really think about it, right? No, I want to save lives and I don't care about prizes. And the UN office for coordination of humanitarian assistance is raising 2 billion dollars for the support of Gaza. Additionally, Japan has just committed to host an aid fundraiser, which will be a very big one, very—it's already successful. We know some of the numbers that are being talked about. Which will be attended by other nations in the region including South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and others. And I know that China's going to be involved and I think Russia's going to be involved, I think they will be. Uh we want to have everybody. Но you get all sides because it doesn't help when you have all sides with one ideology, you have to have everybody together for this. I'm also pleased to announce that FIFA will be helping to raise a total of 75 million dollars for projects in Gaza, and I think they're soccer related where you're doing fields and you're getting the greatest stars in the world to go there and people that are bigger stars than you and I, Gianni, I hate to say it. You know, I met one of your great stars who came to the White House, as you know, and he's uh my son was very excited. He—he is—these are great people. These are great people. And Gianni's uh going to bring the stars to the area and they're really known, people in Gaza know every one of them, right? You know? So it's really something and we'll soon be detailing the announcement and uh if I can do I'll get over there with you. I want to thank Gianni and FIFA for all of the wonderful things they did and are doing. They gave me their first peace prize. They gave me a peace prize. I think they saw that I got screwed by Norway and they said, let's give him a peace prize. I mean, very good. Thank you, Gianni, I appreciate it. Gianni's very smart. He's very, very smart. The nations represented here today, just in closing, are not just contributing money, some are also pledging personnel to help preserve the ceasefire and secure a very enduring peace. We have to have enduring peace. Having peace knowing it's going to blow up in two weeks doesn't mean anything. In particular Indonesia, thank you very much, Indonesia. That's a great country. Thank you very much. Look at—look at that man, look at how tough he is. You think it's easy dealing with him? Look at that face. You are a tough cookie, and we say it lovingly, too. We need strength. You see, he doesn't mind. He's tough and he's smart, and smart is more important. Morocco, thank you very much, great, what you're doing is great. Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan have all committed troops and police to stabilize Gaza. Egypt and Jordan are likewise providing very, very substantial help, troops, training, and support for a very trustworthy Palestinian police force. We think we're getting some very good people on that police force. And uh you know, it's peace in the Middle East, we have peace in the Middle East. Think of it, for years you've been hearing about peace in the Middle East and everybody's saying it's impossible. All of these countries are working together around the vision of a Middle East that is free from the curse of extremism and terror. And now is the time and by the way even people with extremism and preaching extremism, they're exhausted. They're tired. It's been going on for too many years, I don't care who you are. They're tired, they want peace. And now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we're doing. And if they join us, that'll be great. If they don't join us, that'll be great too. Но it'll be a very different path. They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region and uh they must make a deal or if that doesn't happen, I maybe can understand if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Но uh bad things will happen if it doesn't. With the commitments announced today, the Board of Peace is proving that it does not just convene countries, it devises and implements and real solutions happen. We—we've come up with solutions. This is so little talk, this is very little talk, all action. First time. It was always talk in the Middle East, people would talk about peace in the Middle East and then they'd go home and they'd never even think about it again, nothing would happen. We're providing a model for how responsible sovereign nations can cooperate to take responsibility for confronting problems in their own regions. The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built starting right here in this room. And I—I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of 10 billion dollars to the Board of Peace. Thank you. And we've had great support for that number. And that number is a very small number when you look at uh that compared to the cost of war. That's uh that's two weeks of fighting. It's a very small number. It sounds like a lot, but it's a very small number, so we're committed to 10 billion dollars. Together we can achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering, and carnage. They say 3,000 years. And hopefully we can lift up the eyes of the world to envision how other intractable conflicts can be settled. So many conflicts they say are impossible to settle, and we get them settled. We got of those eight that we settled, most of them were said to be not settlable. And they not only got settled, they got settled within days. More impossible problems can be solved as we go along this very beautiful path. I think it's a beautiful path, I think it's such an important day. Even the weather is beautiful, we walk in it's beautiful, everything's beautiful. Но the ancient wounds can be healed and they are indeed ancient, this has been going on for so many centuries. That our entire planet will be a better, safer, more beautiful, and more peaceful place for us all. We're going to be working with the United Nations very closely, we're going to bring them back. I think the United Nations has great potential. Really great potential. It has not lived up to potential. The eight wars, I never even spoke to them about one of them, and I should be speaking to them about all of them. Someday I won't be here. The United Nations will be, I think is going to be much stronger and the Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly. Но we're going to strengthen up the United Nations, we're going to make sure its facilities are good. They need help, and they need help moneywise. We're going to help them moneywise. And we're going to make sure the United Nations is viable, and you have some very good people at the United Nations can do a good job. Но as I said it's—I've said it for years, United Nations has tremendous potential. A lot of people didn't like what I said, they said oh you shouldn't say that because you know we don't care about the United Nations. No, it's really very important and I think it's going to eventually live up to potential. That'll be a big day. So I want to thank everybody for being here, you're my friends, you're great leaders, you're great people. And uh I can honestly say, you know, you're strong leaders, you're tough leaders in many cases and every single one that I'm looking at that's right here, I've gotten to know and I've gotten to respect and and really your friends, your friends of mine. And if I can help you at all you let me know. But this is going to be something, the Board of Peace will be something the likes of which I don't think anybody's seen before. And thank you all very much. It's a great honor. I'm going to ask JD Vance to come up and say a few words. Thank you, very much.

Well, uh thank you, Mr. President, very much for your leadership but also for the kind words about me personally. I knew exactly what I wanted to say but then after the President said that I was so smart and that I didn't want to repeat our congresswoman who froze for 20 seconds over in Munich, now I'm tempted, sir, just to freeze for 20 seconds and just stare at the cameras and maybe they'll say nice things about me like they do about Congresswoman Cortez. But I have three very brief messages. First of all, to the—to the President of the United States but to the entire team, to Marco, to Steve, to Jared in particular, who've done such an incredible job. I think what this Board of Peace represents is a recognition that if you actually have a President of the United States and a team that's committed to diplomacy, it can actually work. When I look at what happened to Israel on October the 7th, all those innocent people who were murdered, the fact that you had all of these hostages and of course a terrible war that came from it, I remember thinking to myself, how is it ever going to be possible to get these hostages home safely, to make it possible for the people of Gaza to actually have a reasonable future but also to ensure that Israel is never attacked again? It turns out the answer was you just needed a President who was committed to the effort and committed to the work, and that's what we had thankfully under the leadership of this President. And you got to make peace, but then you have to make the peace stick. And that brings me to my second point. That's what the Board of Peace I think is fundamentally about is making the peace stick. And it's an incredible thing that you guys have all done. So to all of the leaders gathered here today who are investing in the future, who are investing in peace, we're grateful to you, we're grateful for your partnership, and in particular I think to the—to the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia who I just saw last week, thank you all for making it possible and for showing what real leadership can accomplish. When you set aside weapons and killing and destruction and invest in your people and invest in prosperity, it can create great things. So thank you both for what you did. I think it showed great leadership. And finally, to the American people, I think it's important that the American people recognize why we're here today. And the reason that we're here today is yes to save lives and yes to promote peace, but this creates incredible prosperity for the American people. The countries represented here represent trillions of dollars of investment in the United States of America that would not have been possible without this President's leadership and advocacy for peace. The economies here represent millions of American jobs of people who are receiving products built in American factories and made by American workers, would not be possible without a focus on peace. So Mr. President, while I think this is great for the world, I also think it's really, really great for the United States of America. So we're looking forward to the partnership. With that, I want to turn it over to the MC for the rest of the program, and that is our great press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. Thank you.

Well, congratulations, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, for convening the first-ever Board of Peace meeting. And we will now hear from our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

I'll be—I'll be brief and—and to the point. We want to talk a little bit about the strategic vision of this organization and begin doing so by first acknowledging that we are here today because the President has, President of the United States Donald J. Trump has both an ability and a willingness to use the power of his office to think outside the box. And that's why we're here. This was a very unique crisis in Gaza, one that the existing international institutions could not solve or figure out. It needed a very specific type solution that required the partnership of all the nations that are here, including those that are here on an observer status, and we appreciate you coming today and being a part of this as well. And that's the point I want to drive home today and soon you'll hear from Steve and Jared who, by the way, deserve an incredible amount of credit for pulling this together and working countless hours and traveling all over the world. They truly deserve our appreciation and thanks for the work they've put in under the leadership of President Trump to make this possible. This Gaza situation was impossible to solve under orthodoxy, under existing structures. And so what we did is they went to the UN and they got the UN's approval to put this group together and bring these nations together to come up with a very specific solution—solutions to a very unique and specific problem. We have a long way to go, there's a lot of work that remains. It will require the contribution of every nation and state represented here today and we thank you for being a part of it. And I hope that this, we hope that this can serve as a model for other complex and difficult situations so they can be solved in the same way. But right now the focus is on this one. We have to get this right. There is no plan B for Gaza. Plan B is going back to war. No one here wants that. Plan A, the only path forward, is one that rebuilds Gaza in a way of enduring and sustainable peace where everyone can live their side by side with one another and never worry again about returning to—to conflict, to war, to human suffering and to destruction. And again, Mr. President, thank you for having the vision and the courage to pursue something that has never been done before, and we're not done yet. And thank you to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for the time and the work they put into this. And thank you on behalf of the State Department and the U.S. government to all of the nations that are here. Every one of you is indispensable, including our observer partners who we hope can find your way to join us at some point as officially part of this. But we are grateful for the fact that you're here today and the contributions you've made already. Thank you.

Thank you, Marco. We will now hear from our special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Thank you everybody for being here. Um, I don't know if we ever believed that this was possible when we first started envisioning um a Board of Peace, but of course under the President's indispensable leadership—and it begins with that, it begins with President Trump's leadership and his direction—we are here today and it's pretty amazing. I think we have some people to thank. We had an amazing partnership between the mediating countries, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey. Prime Minister Muhammad, you are an exceptional human being. You really are. Ali, thank you for everything you did. That's you right over there, Ali. Wherever Hakan is, Hakan you were amazing and so was Ibrahim and—and President Erdoğan and of course to the Egyptians, Badr, I know you're smiling because we went through so much and General Hassan was amazing, every—we all became friends here. Um and—and uh Prime Minister Sisi—uh President Sisi, pardon me. Um and so many others. Но our team, JD, your insight, your counsel and Marco, you're an amazing secretary and it's a privilege to work for you. And Jared, you are my dear friend and the best partner I ever had. You are an amazing person. But Mr. President, it is my greatest honor to work for you. You were—it is the blessing in my life. I've had many blessings. I don't have to be a practicing lawyer anymore. Но um but this is my greatest blessing. Но I also have to mention one other person who is important to this discussion—oh, the Israelis, I forgot, Prime Minister Netanyahu, without him much would not have been accomplished as well, and that's really important that we acknowledge him here today and—and Ron Dermer. Но um a person who uh doesn't—doesn't care much about the acclaim, we have to acknowledge—acknowledge too, and that's you, Susie, because I would come back and you would say to me on every trip, what can I do for you? This matters. And you're an inspiration for all of us. So I thank everybody and um let me get on to—am I going on to the next slide, Karoline? Okay. So with regard to the hostages, we're here today again, I say it, I know it sounds redundant, but we're here today because of President Trump. Without him nothing—none of this was possible. There were 251 hostages, 168 came out alive, 83 bodies were returned to their families so that they could grieve and um remember their loved ones like—like in a normal way, um in a way that brought their families together, so that was just as important. This was uh a monumental effort and I want to tell a story about the President. Every time a hostage family came to visit with us, they were not on the President's schedule. I would walk down to the Oval Office, I would tell the President that there was a hostage family here and he would say, Steve, bring 'em up. Every single time. And when we got the last 20 out, we had a celebration at the White House and I could see the emotion on the President's face. And he came up to me and he said to me, I have to tell you, this is my fifth year in the Oval Office, and I don't know that I've ever had a more special time than this moment with these people seeing them come home. And I said to the President, you have to look around because none of them would be home without you, sir. None of them. So um I only want to tell you, Mr. President, you gave me my greatest honor to work on this—on this effort, and I thank you.

Thank you, Steve. Now you're going to hear directly from the team that has been tasked with implementing President Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, beginning with our Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz.

Thank you and thank you, Mr. President, Excellencies. First let me wish everyone a happy and prayerful Ramadan. Thank you so much uh for joining all of us today. Mr. President, Excellencies, bottom line: humanitarian aid has absolutely surged since the Gaza war ended. Our Central Command, our great military is working together with Israel, with the UN, so many countries here to coordinate the aid, to make sure there's deconfliction. Over 70 countries now are participating in our civil-military command center and here are the results. Aid is up. 4,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza each week for 13 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch of high-volume assistance to Gaza in years. Diversion is down significantly from prior to the ceasefire with less than 1% diverted this month. Food supplies are way up. We are reaching the full 2.1 million Gazans with aid, up to—up five times from the delivery levels before the ceasefire. The percentage of households experiencing severe hunger has dropped from about 30% down to 1% uh as of this past February. Drinking water has doubled and child malnutrition has been cut in half. Uh if we could go to the—the next slide, Mr. President, only under your leadership and this great team could we bring together the United States, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, the United Nations agencies. Mr. President, bottom line, like you, this is a board of action, not a board of endless talk or speeches and these results are a true testament uh to your leadership and the leadership of this great team. We are saving lives uh and it's an honor to be a part of it. Thank you, Mr. President.

Dr. Ali Shaith.

It is my honor to be here representing the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership, for your continued efforts. A new governing authority is now in place for Gaza with a clear mandate and a clear commitment to establishing development and stability. However, we are operating in extremely difficult conditions. Large parts of Gaza Strip are severely damaged, destroyed actually. Humanitarian needs are acute. Law and order remain fragile. This is not normal operating environment, President, which is precisely why discipline and prioritization matter. Our priorities therefore are defined into four categories. First, restore security via professional civilian police under once authority, one law, and one weapon, including training and developing 5,000 Gazan police to be deployed in 60 days. Secondly, revive economic activities and livelihoods, creating decent jobs especially for our young population. Thirdly, ensure sustainable emergency relief as described earlier. Fourthly, restore basic services including electricity, water, health, and education. And last but not least, the access and movement. Our mandate is simple, President: step by step to build the foundation for lasting peace, dignity, and prosperity for the people of Gaza. And this is where we count on your continued leadership and support. Blessed the peacemaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Now Nick Mladenov.

Thank you, Karoline, and thank you, Mr. President. Uh today we're very happy to announce that we're creating the office of the High Representative for Gaza of the Board of Peace, which will be there to support, to guide, and assist the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, hopefully removing the roadblocks that they will be facing in take over—taking over civilian and administrative control of the Gaza Strip. We plan to work in full transparency under the guidelines of and supervision of the Board of Peace and the executive board, and of course we will do that in great coordination with the Israel and with the Palestinian institutions, who we both require to make this work on the ground and certainly uh with my very good colleague here, General Jeffers and the international stabilization force that is coming together. Mr. President, if I can actually use the opportunity to announce some breaking news that as of this morning we started the process of recruiting Palestinian police force that Ali was just referring to, and just in the first few hours, we have 2,000 people who have applied to join a new transitional Palestinian police force to be formed in Gaza under the authority of the National Committee with the support of the Board of Peace, trained in Egypt where we have received an excellent proposal of how to do that forward and this is critical to what we need to do um as we begin this process. And if we may move to the second slide, it is this Palestinian security force under the authority of the National Committee for the transition period that will allow us to ensure that all factions in Gaza are dismantled and all weapons are put under the control of one civilian authority. The only way to do that is the full implementation of the 20-point plan and the UN Security Council resolution which binds us all to make sure that that is the way forward. We have now a fully agreed framework with the mediators on how to do this, and I thank very much the State of Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye for their excellent support in this. We now need to move forward on communicating it um and negotiating the details of the implementation plan with the factions on the ground. But rest assured to all of you that we're on the right track, and if I can ask one thing of all of us is to make sure that we have one message: there is no other option except the full demilitarization and decommissioning of all weapons in Gaza for reconstruction to begin and for people to have a new way of life going forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Nick, and congratulations. Now Major General Jasper Jeffers.

Thank you, Karoline, Mr. President. It's an honor to be here today as the ISF commander. The ISF will do two things: stabilize the security environment in Gaza and enable civilian governance as established by the National Committee. For the last few months, we've had a team on the ground of U.S. military experts preparing the infrastructure for the ISF. This team's already operating from a combined joint operations center that's going to be the headquarters for the entire ISF. As you can see on our map, our plan is for the ISF to be assigned in five different sectors, each sector receiving one ISF brigade. In the short term, we plan to deploy to the Rafah sector first, in addition to the training of police. Midterm objective is to continue to expand sector by sector, all moving to our long-term 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers. I'm incredibly pleased to announce today that the first five countries have committed troops to serve in the ISF: Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania. And two countries have committed to train police: Egypt and Jordan. I would also like to announce that I have offered, and Indonesia has accepted, the position of deputy commander for the ISF. With these first steps, we will help bring the security that Gaza needs for future prosperity and enduring peace. Thank you.

Thank you, Major General. Mr. Tony Blair.

For decades Gaza's governance has been characterized by extremism, corruption, ineffective institutions, and the complete absence of a route to prosperity for the Gazan people. Yet as President Trump recognized, its potential has always been vast. 25 miles of Mediterranean coastline, proximity to great regional and global markets, and a young, dynamic population with a median age of 19. So today we set out profound changes necessary to rebuild Gaza for Gazans. Gaza not as it was, but as it should be, including its governance: effective public institutions serving the people, a business environment where enterprise flourishes, an education system educating the young for tolerance and achievement, and a tech-enabled society making the most of the digital revolution. This is a vision of Gaza as part of a Middle East at peace. Not a phony peace of declarations no one means and agreements no one intends to keep, but a genuine commitment to a region where whether you're a Muslim, Jew, Christian, of any faith or none, you can rise by your own efforts and feel your government by your side, not on your back. That is the vision behind President Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, and it remains the best, indeed the only hope for Gaza, the region, and the wider world.

Thank you. Mr. Shakir Gabbay.

Hello everybody, thank you, Mr. President. Gaza is destroyed. We assembled here on this historic day with common vision: to rebuild Gaza for the next generations. Our mission is to recycle and remove 70 million tons of rubble and UXO and hundreds of miles of tunnels. Arrange for the population fast temporary housing. In parallel, to start construction of infrastructure and permanent housing. We have a detailed master plan for housing and infrastructure of modern schools and hospitals, manufacturing and agriculture, roads and trains, water and energy plants, logistics hubs, telecom tech and data centers, sports and leisure facilities, seaport and airport, and much more. We lined up many regional contractors who build housing for millions of people in the Middle East. They will join the massive redevelopment with competitive pricing. The funding is ready and will be invested in a free economy. The local population will build their own cities which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and will revive the economy. The Gaza coastline is 26 miles long. It can be developed as a new Mediterranean Riviera with 200 hotels and potential islands. The value goes to the Gazans through the Gaza sovereign fund. This plan is all subject to a full disarmament of Hamas. Thank you very much, together we will make this vision into a reality.

Thank you. Mr. Liran Tangman.

When we asked the NCAG what Gaza needs to unlock its potential, the answer was clear: reconnect Gaza to the world, digitally and economically, and replace corruption with an open, tax-free system. Gaza was once a vital trade hub between Asia and Europe. Reconnection is a return to its roots. Even the word gauze comes from Gaza, where silk was woven and exported to Europe. So we brought together Palestinian, Arab, and American partners to deliver practical solutions. By July, Gaza's 2G network will be upgraded with free high-speed access to essential services. The NCAG is building a secure digital backbone, an open platform enabling e-payments, financial services, e-learning, and healthcare with user control over data. This effort is supported by our regional partners, and I believe you will hear some exciting news from them on that later today. In parallel, we're advancing an Amazon-like logistics system to help Palestinian launch businesses, import globally and trade securely. This will lower prices, drive growth, and help transform Gaza into an open, transparent, corruption-free economic zone. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Mark Rowan.

Mr. President, distinguished leaders. The goal is simple. Take the momentum all of you have provided and build it into something that is not just temporary relief but something that provides a long-term foundation that will enable many of the goals we've spoken about today to be achieved. We plan to do this by gathering Gaza's productive assets in one unified structure. This will allow independent, professional, conflict-free management of the resources to benefit the Gazans. This will also enable expeditious planning and zoning and not fragmented projects that do not contribute to an economic whole. The potential here is tremendous, but it has to start somewhere. The start is in Rafah, where as you heard, security will be the first place security is deployed. The plan is 100,000 homes for 500,000 residents plus 5 billion of infrastructure. Over time, 400,000 homes for the entirety of the population with more than 30 billion of infrastructure. Let me put it in financial terms. This is not a problem of money or collateral. This is a problem of peace. The coastline alone, 50 billion dollars of value on a conservative basis. The housing stock, more than 30 billion as rebuilt. The infrastructure, more than 30 billion. 150 billion of value, it just needs to be unlocked and financed.

Great, thank you. Mr. Ajay Banga.

Thank you, Karoline, and thank you, Mr. President. All this requires money. And so when the UN Security Council resolution got passed, we set about creating the Gaza reconstruction and development fund at the World Bank. It's housed there, the World Bank's role is that of a limited trustee. We manage the donor contributions coming in of type that the President said a little earlier in his opening remarks, and then we help to manage that money while it stays with us and under the direction of the Board of Peace we disperse the money for reconstruction and development projects in Gaza. This fund is ready to receive the donations that he spoke about just a little while ago. The second part of the story is that you as donors deserve the right to know that the money is being used in a transparent way. We are helping along with the Board of Peace, which takes the ownership of ensuring that the right kind of financial, legal, and oversight mechanisms are being put in place. We've even assigned a financial controller from the World Bank on a secondment basis to the Board of Peace to ensure that we can try and help build the best standards in this process. Now this is just the beginning. This work is going to need two or three things that the World Bank group can bring to the table. The first is leveraging of public finance. Because of our triple-A rating, we have the ability to leverage private bond money to help to create the resources we need to do what Mark just talked about. The second is we can de-risk private investing. And the third is we have people on the ground and expertise and knowledge of doing this kind of work in other markets. We want to be not an armchair critical process, but an active participant in giving Gazans and people in the region the opportunity of the lives they deserve the one time we get these results. So thank you again.

Thank you all for your tremendous work. Before we turn it over to many of the distinguished leaders who are here today, we are going to hear from Mr. Kushner to talk about the future of the Board of Peace.

Thank you, Karoline, and thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Secretary Rubio. Um we cannot change the past, but I think that what you're seeing today is that we can potentially change the future if we focus and do this in the right way. We tried to structure this meeting like a proper board meeting, like we do in the private sector where we have all the preparation, we get the right people together, and we really report on what our challenges are, what the opportunities are, and what are the approaches. Um what you've seen today is just a small sample of the work that's been done and I really want to thank the entire team that's worked so hard at this. A lot of these people are volunteers, they're doing this not for any personal gain, people are not personally profiting from this, they are really doing this for their children and for their grandchildren and because they want to see peace. Um one small anecdote is Liran said to me, are you sure I should be presenting? I'm a Jewish Israeli and I'm working on Gaza and all these things, and I said that's exactly why you should be presenting today. Um if Jews and Muslims work together, Israelis and Palestinians with Americans and and English and and Bulgarian and people from all around the world, uh then we can kind of join on a common goal, which is peace and togetherness, and that's really what we've done. Uh I want to thank President Trump. Um I remember uh working with you on your first foreign policy speech in 2016 that you gave at the Mayflower Hotel. And at the time, those ideas were considered to be very, very radical. What I saw as somebody who didn't have any foreign policy experience were just common-sense ideas. Why can't the world be better? Why can't there be peace? Why can't there be more prosperity for all people in all ways? And I think over the last decade you really have changed the way that the world thinks about a lot of these things and I think that this organization is bringing a new approach and new ideas and new people together uh in order to effectuate it. Uh I'd really like to thank all the countries that joined on very early. Uh I see this as a very self-selecting group of countries that uh really believed that the future can be different and wanted to join in partnership and put their reputations and their resources and their time and their ideas on the way to say these are the challenges we're putting in that we're solving in our own countries, we want to come with new ideas because we've achieved success and we believe that the world can be better in that regard. So uh I don't have to go through these slides in—in great detail, but we've uh secured today even without the President's, you know, amazing commitment over 7 billion dollars as Mark said, we don't really have a resource issue here, although we are going to need everyone's support, we just need to be executing and doing this in a good way. Uh we've dealt with the humanitarian issue, we've returned the hostages. Но the one final thing I just want to talk about as well from our perspective is that uh the President Trump in his heart wanted to get the hostages home, but he also really wanted to help the people of Gaza. He saw the suffering that they were enduring not through fault of their own, because of the bad leadership that they had, the situation they were born into. Uh the war was a horrific, horrific situation. And I think through this process, uh thanks to Ali and the committee, uh we are now here to fully support the committee, we're held here to help the people of Gaza to lift them up and give them every opportunity to succeed. And we really see this as a partnership with them uh and with the Israelis to see if we can create an environment that can be peaceful, that can be functional, that can offer people the opportunity to really live a better life and I think you've seen some of the work today and uh and hopefully we'll be successful. Like I said the last one, you know, failure's not an option and we have to really push forward and keep finding ways to succeed with this. So really thank you, President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary Rubio, um and obviously Steve who's been uh like he said about me, I feel just about him, uh working through all these challenges has been an absolute honor and a pleasure with you uh and I've really um been—been very lucky to have your partnership. So really thank you all, and uh I'll give back to Karoline. Thank you.

(A video titled "Gaza Rebirth" is presented featuring a vision for the future of Gaza).

It's amazing. Now we will hear from our distinguished leaders who are here today, beginning with the King of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

President Trump, distinguished members of the Board of Peace. It is an honor to participate in this inaugural meeting of board convened by President Donald Trump. I take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt congratulations on this worthy and timely initiative. The meeting comes during the holy month of Ramadan where we will pray to Almighty God that our endeavors will bring peace, security, prosperity to the world. As a founding member of the Board of Peace, the Kingdom of Bahrain recognizes and endorses the tremendous potential of this body, the extraordinary drive of its Chairman, and his sincere efforts to unify nations in our common objectives of fostering an enduring peace for the Middle East. We greatly appreciate President Trump initiative in presenting the Gaza peace plan and establishing this board as a vital platform for dialogue, action, and delivery. As we embark on this historic journey together, we urge all peace-loving nations, organizations, and groups to actively engage in the successful implementation of the second phase of the Gaza peace plan. This includes ensuring a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, facilitating its reconstruction, and providing hope and a new opportunities for the people of Palestine and Israel. This inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace marks an extraordinary and pivotal chance to envision a new future for Gaza. One that emerges from the ruins of conflict to building a landscape of security, aspiration, hope, and opportunity for its people. And reaffirming our commitment to this vision, the Kingdom of Bahrain has contributed the funds towards the operations and administration of the Board of Peace and today we announce our readiness to provide the necessary infrastructure and skills to establish an effective government digital services platform for Gaza. Our decision to join the Abraham Accord and enter into the CEBA agreement with the United States reflects our commitment to advancing peace and stability in the Middle East. The United States historic and ongoing presence in our region has served as a positive force for stability, and we remain dedicated to strengthening our partnership. We look forward with optimism to working with the Board of Peace and all of our international partners who share our ambitions for a brighter future for all. Thank you, Mr. President.

Next the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Dear Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. Our meeting here at the Donald Trump U.S. Institute of Peace comes at a moment where decisive and pragmatic actions matter most. In fact, it's about making durable peace through practical, target-oriented measures but not through endless conferences with wishful resolutions. Mr. President, your clear vision and far-sighted approach to promoting global peace and stability has inspired my country to join the Board of Peace. The Board of Peace is widely expected to respond directly to new realities by reinforcing existing multilateral efforts. The world has never seen a move like this. It is absolutely unprecedented because in essence, peace through construction is a very innovative concept or project and it has every chance to become a reality by our joint efforts. Therefore, Mr. President, I acknowledge and accept your conviction that lasting peace must be built on concrete actions. As our first step, we are ready to contribute a significant amount of cash finance directly to the Board of Peace without any delay. Kazakhstan is also keen to be part of the restoration and construction process through international companies with strong credentials. The program, mostly funded by our government, may include the construction of infrastructure, housing, residential complexes, schools, hospitals, and other important civilian facilities, as well as the rubble clearings. We pledge to fully accomplish our financial commitment towards the board. As one of the world's major producers of wheat, Kazakhstan is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to enhance food security in Gaza and beyond. Kazakhstan plans to provide 500 scholarships to Palestinian students to pursue academic programs in our universities over a five-year period. We can share our internationally recognized e-government expertise and other digital solutions. Kazakhstan is willing to support the ISF by deploying military units including medical units and sending our observers to the civil-military coordination center. Sustainable development in the Middle East requires new ways to promote peace, cooperation, and trust across the region. That's why Kazakhstan has joined the Abraham Accords. This crucial move is fully aligned with the noble mission of the Board of Peace. Both of them may constitute a solid basis for joint efforts to promote peace and security in the Middle East, and to foster economic, humanitarian cooperation in the region and even beyond. Given the global nature of the board's agenda, Kazakhstan is committed to provide practical support, including through hosting meetings at different levels and scales. I also would like to propose to establish a special President Trump Award of the Board of Peace to recognize his outstanding peacebuilding efforts and achievements. I'm confident, Mr. President, that under your strong leadership, the Board of Peace will successfully deliver its great noble mission. Thank you.

Next the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

(Speaks in Uzbek) Dear Mr. President Trump, Your Excellencies. Permit me to express my sincere appreciation to the President of the United States Donald Trump for convening the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. Without doubt, today's summit is a result of the political will and pragmatism of President Trump. Uzbekistan supported the peacekeeping initiative on the creation of the Board of Peace and firmly declared its intention to take a practical part in its successful realization. I am convinced that the work of the Board of Peace will allow for the formation of a favorable environment for the economic and social restoration of the Gaza sector. At the same time, any mechanism of external management must certainly rely on the internal support of the population of the sector. The coordinated efforts of all sides will allow for the insurance of a stable post-conflict process and the creation of conditions for the swiftest restoration of Gaza. I will emphasize that Uzbekistan is ready to make a feasible contribution to the construction of residential houses, kindergartens, schools, and hospitals. Dear friends, it is symbolic that today's summit is taking place in the Institute of Peace named after Donald Trump. Our meeting is a vivid manifestation of international solidarity, peacekeeping, and a general aspiration for the improvement of the situation in the Middle East. We must use this historic opportunity for the construction of a new Gaza with a flourishing economy and worthy conditions of life for the entire population. Thank you for your attention.

The President of the Republic of Indonesia.

President Trump, distinguished delegates. Indonesia from the first day that we studied President Trump's 20-point plan, we completely agree and we are fully committed to this plan and that is why we joined the Board of Peace. We are committed to its success. We know there will be a lot of obstacles, there will be a lot of difficulties, but we are very optimistic with the leadership of President Trump this vision of real peace will be achieved. There will be problems but we will prevail. We will achieve our dream of peace in Palestine, peace, a lasting and peaceful solution for the Palestinian problem and in Gaza. The achievements of the ceasefire is real. We commend this and therefore we reaffirm our commitment to contribute significant numbers of troops up to 8,000 or more if necessary. We are prepared to contribute the troops to take part actively in the international stabilization force to make this peace work. Thank you very much.

The Prime Minister of Romania.

First of all, President Trump, thank you for convening this very important meeting and thank you for your involvement and leadership for the peace plan in Gaza, a peace plan that have been comprehensive and stable, and also for your efforts and results in other parts of the world. I think everyone desire peace, stability, prosperity in Gaza, but the question is how to act for. And that's why this meeting and this format it's important. What Romania can do? First, on the humanitarian situation, we can increase the number of flights in order to extract children with disease and to treat in Romanian hospitals. We've done already and we can do for 1,000 children and 4,000 family members. Secondly, we had a good expertise in emergency response system like ambulance, fire systems, and we can help in order to rebuild that system and we can donate some equipment. Third, we already offering some scholarship for Palestinian students and we can extend the program and we can help also to rebuild, refurbish the schools in Gaza. And fourth, I think the most important, we had also some expertise, we can help to rebuild the institutions like police, like justice, like public administration. We have done that in other parts of the world, so we have some expertise. We can contribute experts, trainers, and also it's important to say that we have traditionally good relations with Jewish people and with the Palestinian people, so it will help. So you can count on us. Thank you.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania.

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this journey, Mr. President. The fully aligned bipartisan vote of support this initiative received in our parliament speaks for itself about how honored Albania is to be a founding member of this new organization. Many in Europe say the Board of Peace is meant to substitute the United Nations. It does not look to me like an attempt to replace the UN but if it helps shake that agonizing giant and inshallah wake it up, then God bless the Board of Peace. Mr. President, we commend your decisive role in bringing a halt to the heartbreaking conflict in Gaza and Albania has confirmed its participation in the stabilization force with our troops. At the same time, I propose that this board invite all countries to contribute directly by building a dedicated public facility for Palestinian children, and in doing so the world would help the children of Gaza, who are the most innocent hostages of the lunacy of Hamas, to grow within the tangible presence of the largest chain of hands humanity has ever joined together. By not only putting the money but bringing their own architects in this, so the world can transform a wound of history into an oasis of hope where compassion takes concrete form and the future is shaped around those who deserve it most: the next generations of Palestinians. Albania would be privileged to stand in that chain. Allow me very briefly to draw your attention to another open conflict closer to home where President Trump's leadership during his first term brought Kosovo and Serbia closer than ever to a final peace agreement. The President of Kosovo was then brutally prevented from traveling to the White House to sign that agreement in the presence of President Trump and this was the doing of the very same sicario prosecutor that went after President Trump himself and for that became worldwide famous. Today, the Kosovo president has now spent six years in pre-trial detention before a special court in the Hague sponsored by several democratic states, some of them present here, that should be ashamed of that type of international justice. Just last week, Mr. President, another prosecutor funded by this great country and its taxpayers requested 45 years of imprisonment for him, a request that sent shockwaves of humiliation through an entire peace-seeking nation. At this moment, only a few months stand between a man who rose from resistance to ethnic cleansing to become a peacemaker and the potentially devastating outcome in a court that has so far failed at every step to uphold the standards of democratic justice. For the sake of God, Mr. President, let's do something before, as you say, very bad things might happen again. And again, thank you so much for including Albania in this noble initiative by bringing close friends of Israel and of the Arab countries. We very much hope to be an added value in your amazing vision. Thank you.

Next the Prime Minister of Egypt.

Your Excellency President Donald Trump, distinguished participants. I thank President Trump for convening this meeting. His Excellency's direct involvement and commitment to promoting peace in the region has been instrumental in achieving an end to the conflict in Gaza, which was previously considered unattainable. Egypt support President Trump's vision to usher in a new era of peace and coexistence among the people of the region in which the Palestinian people enjoy their rights to self-determination and statehood in accordance to relevant international resolutions. Egypt also appreciates President Trump's firm position on rejecting the annexation of the West Bank. Egypt supports the mandate of the Board of Peace as a principal framework for governing the transitional period in Gaza. It is necessary to fully empower the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza to function effectively from within and throughout the strip. Also, preserving the institutional and geographic link between the West Bank and Gaza is vital for the Palestinian Authority to eventually resume its role in Gaza. Within the framework of Egypt support to President Trump's plan, Egypt will continue its effort to train Palestinian police personnel to maintain security within the strip. Egypt value President Trump's position rejecting the deportation of the Palestinian people from Gaza as reflected in the 20-point plan and stresses the importance of initiating early recovery projects in the whole of the strip in a manner that preserve its geographic unity. Let us consider today's meeting as initial step in advancing these objectives. Again, thank you Your Excellency President Trump.

The Prime Minister of the State of Qatar.

Thank you, Mr. President, distinguished members of the Board of Peace. Thank you for convening this meeting under the banner of peace. Qatar reaffirms its commitment to the Board of Peace as it was committed to the very first day of the mediation efforts. From that day until the end, when we have witnessed in that historic moment in Sharm El-Sheikh the signing of this agreement together with our partners. For decades this conflict has burdened our region and the world and our responsibility remains to achieve a just and lasting resolution. The board under the President Trump leadership will advance the full implementation of the 20-point plan without delay, ensuring fairness and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. In this spirit, Qatar pledges 1 billion dollar in support to the board mission aimed at reaching a final resolution that fulfills Palestinian aspiration for statehood and recognition and the Israeli aspiration for security and integration. We will also continue our humanitarian coordination together with our UN partners and the Board of Peace. Thank you very much.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the UAE.

Mr. President, thank you for gathering us today. And I really hope that the beginning of Ramadan will give us all guidance towards peace, coexistence and living in prosperity with each other. Mr. President, just over five years ago, you with your friend my President Sheikh Mohammed and the Prime Minister of Israel launched the Abraham Accords. And since then we've managed not only to work with you and with Israel towards a better future for the region, but even when October 7th took place, the UAE managed to work with Israel in providing since the war started almost 3 billion dollars of assistance to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Today, Mr. President, the UAE announces a further 1.2 billion dollars for supporting Gaza through the Board of Peace which I'm delighted that I've been working with so many friends like Steve and Jared, Secretary Rubio who's been so inspiring in so many other fronts and looking forward working with him for uh in the future. And Mr. President, if it wasn't for your support, I think this board would not have been gathered, we would not have had the meeting in New York to end this war when you gathered eight leaders of the region to end this war. So Mr. President, during Ramadan we pray for your success. Thank you.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Thank you. Mr. President, His Majesty King Mohammed VI welcomes and supports your vision and leadership to foster peace and prosperity around the world and in particular in the Middle East. Thanks to your peace plan for Gaza, a ceasefire was achieved, a tragic war was ended, lives were saved, and the pragmatic and forward-looking approach to rebuild Gaza was crafted. Today, as a committed founding member of the Board of Peace and upon instructions of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Morocco is pledging the following in honor of President Trump's visionary peacemaking: 1. Morocco has already made the first-ever financial contribution to the Board of Peace. 2. Morocco is ready to deploy police officers and train policemen from Gaza. 3. Morocco will deploy a high-ranking military officers to ISF joint military command. 4. Morocco will deploy a military field hospital. 5. Morocco is ready to lead a deradicalization program to fight hate speech and promote tolerance and coexistence. To conclude allow me Mr. President to briefly highlight four elements. The condition set in phase two of the your 20-point plan should be met for the success of our action. Preserving stability in the West Bank is crucial. The Palestinian ownership is important through legitimate institutions. Lastly, you are Mr. President the only leader able to bring peace to the Middle East. We hope that the stabilization of Gaza will help launch a global and genuine peace process based on the two-state solution. Thank you.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey.

Mr. President, distinguished participants. After two years of immense suffering, ceasefire in Gaza has been achieved thanks to President Trump's personal engagement and our collective efforts. Yet the humanitarian situation remains fragile and ceasefire violations continue to occur. A prompt, coordinated and effective response is therefore essential. President Erdoğan remains fully committed to Gaza's security, stabilization and recovery. Türkiye has already been providing immense amount of humanitarian assistance to Gaza. We can also contribute meaningfully to the rehabilitation of health and education sectors as well as the training of the police force. In addition, we are prepared to provide troops to the international stabilization force. Mr. President, Türkiye will continue to support your efforts towards a just and lasting peace. We remain convinced that the foundation of such peace is the two-state solution. Let us work towards that objective for the benefit of all peoples of the region. Thank you.