President Donald Trump’s attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos in the Swiss alps is in doubt as the U.S. government shutdown stretches into a third day.
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Swiss federal police are assembling additional security forces at the last minute for this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos because of the high number of world leaders attending, reports Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick. “Even the most recent technologies are transforming economic models and the globalized world itself, which, conditioned by private interests and an ambition for profit at all costs, seem to favor further fragmentation and individualism, rather than to facilitate approaches that are more inclusive”, the pope said.
Traveling alongside Trump will be several cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and more.
“I think it would be a lost opportunity with so many leaders at the start of the year if we didn’t also address peace and reconciliation questions in Davos”, Brende said. “If not, it could get confrontational”.
The World Economic Forum’s 48th Annual Meeting brings together a record number of Heads of State, Government and global organisations alongside leaders from business, civil society, academia, the arts and media under the theme “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”.
“Trump is Exhibit A of our fractured world”, Jennings said. And we have been talking about the need and the priority of an America first economic system.
There is acute concern in European capitals that 2018 could be the year Trump’s bark on trade turns into bite, as he considers punitive measures on steel and threatens to end the 90s-era North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF. “The business community is eager to see what he does next”.
As of Friday morning, news outlets were reporting that Trump would not make time to meet with May during the trip to Davos. The last president to appear at the event was Bill Clinton in 2000.
The annual meeting will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, along with 70 other heads of state, 38 global CEOs and 3,000 delegates and members of the media. He’ll give the keynote speech at the economic conference before his return to the USA on Friday. “A year of unity and growth”.
I am not all that sure he will be welcomed with open arms. The organisers say 21 per cent of this year’s attendees are women: a record.
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As always, these conferences typically achieve no “quick fixes” but there is little doubt that a global meeting of minds and having common cause is always beneficial. “Men have to be part of the solution”.
