US President Donald Trump has personally invited Australia, Greece and Cyprus to join his newly launched “Board of Peace” for Gaza — a central body in his 20–point plan to stabilise the war–torn Palestinian territory.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will consider the invitation from Trump to join the US leader’s Gaza peace board.
“We’ll consider all of these approaches respectfully and through our proper processes,” Albanese told ABC radio on Monday.
But the Labor leader added he was yet to look into the details of the request as he had been focused on parliament returning to debate hate speech laws following December’s massacre at Bondi.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government would be discussing the proposal with the US.
“We certainly welcome the invitation, as we do welcome terms of the specific request, we’ll continue to talk that through with America to properly understand what this means and what’s involved,” he told ABC TV.
Athens and Nicosia have confirmed that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Nikos Christodoulides received the invitation, signalling Greece and Cyprus’s emerging prominence in US foreign policy on the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hold a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, December 2025. Photo: AAP via Reuters/Abir Sultan/POOL
The invitation comes as Greece and Cyprus are deepening cooperation with Israel, forging a strong trilateral partnership spanning defence, energy and regional security. In recent months, as reported in various media outlets, leaders from Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed a new military cooperation work plan for 2026 encompassing joint exercises, specialised training and strategic coordination across land, sea and air, part of an increasingly integrated Eastern Mediterranean alliance amid shared security concerns.
This expanding partnership also extends into energy connectivity and infrastructure. The three nations have championed major projects like the planned electricity interconnector between Greece, Cyprus and Israel — part of broader efforts to strengthen regional energy security and linkage to European markets.
For Greece and Cyprus, participation in the Board dovetails with an already strategic relationship towards Israel — a partnership bolstered by shared concerns over energy routes, defence cooperation and Eastern Mediterranean stability.
Trump has invited other world leaders to join the board including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
Other names put forward for the board, which the US president will chair, include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Israel has said it is opposed to some of the world leaders joining the board, although it did not specify which inclusions it rejected.
Its government said several of the proposed appointments were “not coordinated with Israel and were contrary to its policy”.
The Trump administration has reportedly asked countries to contribute at least US$1 billion to become permanent board members.
With AAP