Japan’s Prime minister Shinzo Abe has not yet decided to nominate the United States President Donald Trump for 2019’s Nobel Peace Prize, but the questing may appear to be an open debate: Trump has been put forward by other nations for this prestigious award.
According to Reuters news reports, while attending a White House news conference on Friday, the US president said Japanese Abe had given him “the most beautiful copy” of a five-page nomination letter to Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Since the time, Abe has refused to say whether he is committed to doing so. Regardless of this, Trump has reportedly been nominated by two of the Norwegian lawmakers.
Per-Willy Amundsen, who was Justice Minister in Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s cabinet in 2016-2018, told Reuters: “We have nominated him of course for the positive developments on the Korean Peninsula,” adding, “It has been a very difficult situation and the tensions have since lowered and a lot of it is due to Trump’s unconventional diplomatic style.”
Amundsen, a member of the rightwing Progress Party, wrote a letter to award committee along with Christian Tybring-Gjedde, his parliamentary colleague, he added.
The letter has been submitted in June, just after a summit between Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-Un in Singapore aimed at de-escalating tensions between two countries and also tackling Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Tybring-Gjedde told Reuters: “A possible award would, of course, depend on the talks leading to a credible disarmament deal.”
A wide range of people could be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, including heads of state, university professors of law, social sciences and history, members of parliaments and governments, past Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
The deadline for nominations for the 2019 prize, which will be announced on October 11, was Jan. 31.
The five-strong Norwegian Nobel Committee, who are responsible for deciding the winners, does not hold the authority to comment over nominations, keeping it secret – the names of nominators and unsuccessful nominees – for 50 years.
However, the committee has disclosed this month that there are 304 candidates nominated to the prize, of which around 219 are individuals with 85 being the organizations.