Davos delegates bid for cooperation in fragmented world
PARIS, France (AFP) — Top politicians and world business leaders are set to meet for the annual Davos summit in the Swiss Alps next week under the shadow of war in Ukraine, a climate crisis and global trade in disarray.
For half a century, the World Economic Forum has brought together executives and policymakers to sing the praises of globalization, but that process is seen as unwinding as new geopolitical fault lines harden around the world.
The Covid-19 pandemic, growing United States-China hostility and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have led some politicians and experts to even speculate about “an end to the era of globalization,” which began in earnest in the decade af ter the first Davos meeting in 1971.
The agenda for this year’s meeting in the snow-deficient Alps, starting next Monday, reflects this gloomy reality.
“The theme of the meeting is ‘cooperation in a fragmented world’,” executive chairman and founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, told journalists this week.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres are among the most prominent figures attending the forum, alongside nearly 400 government ministers and policymakers, 600 CEOs and an array of media, non-government organizations and academic figures.
One session will discuss whether we are living through “de-globalization or re-globalization,” while others will ponder the impact of trade wars, real wars, the cost-of-living crisis and the planet’s heating climate.
“There’s no doubt that our 53rd annual meeting in Davos will happen against the most complex geopolitical and geoeconomic backdrop in decades. So much is at stake,” Borge Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who is now president of the meeting, said.
Russia is not expected to be officially represented, underlining the sea change since 2021, when President Vladimir Putin addressed delegates via video link, or 2009 when he attended in person.
China has not yet announced its presence.
“There were a few years where there was a tone of hope that we would go back to the old normal, this sort of globalized world,” Karen Harris, an economist at the consulting firm Bain & Company, said.
“I think there’s an acknowledgement now that that era is ending.”
Ukraine conflict
The conflict in Ukraine and its cascading effects on global energy and defense policies will be a prominent theme throughout the five-day meeting.
It is expected to dominate the opening day on Tuesday as well as Wednesday, when North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg takes the stage with Polish President Andrzej Duda, who argues for a more forceful Western response to Moscow’s invasion.
It is unclear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will give a video address as he did at last year’s meeting in May.
But several Ukrainian ministers, military leaders and soldiers will be among a large delegation that is expected to lobby for more weapons and financial support from the West.
Climate change has also been announced as a top issue, with organisers keen for discussion to help prepare the next round of global talks, COP28, that will take place in the oil-producing United Arab Emirates from 30 November.