View ahead of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 15th, 2024.
Adam Galici | CNBC
LONDON — It’s that time of year when the great and the good gather for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
A slew of heads of state, politicians and business moguls are set to attend the four-day event in the Alpine resort — but what might be more telling is which leaders are sidestepping the forum.
While Donald Trump, who is being inaugurated as U.S. president on Monday, is expected to address the forum via live video link on Thursday, a number of key leaders will be completely absent from the event.
These include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations — which includes the U.S., Europe’s biggest economies, Canada and Japan — the only head of state attending the summit in person is outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
WEF says this year’s event — the 55th annual forum, which runs from Monday to Thursday — will convene close to 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries, with the gathering “demonstrating the critical need for dialogue in an increasingly uncertain era.” It notes that 350 government leaders, including 60 heads of state and governments, “will gather in Davos-Klosters to address pressing challenges and shape emerging opportunities.”
People pass in front of big screen during the speech of US President Donald Trump on January 26, 2018 at the Davos Congress Centre (C), the venue of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in the town of Davos, eastern Switzerland. / AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
Miguel Medina | Afp | Getty Images
The theme of the event is “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” with the agenda focusing on five key areas: reimagining growth, industries in the intelligent age, investing in people, safeguarding the planted and rebuilding trust.
Not all world leaders will be there to discuss these issues, however.
“The leaders of Brazil, of China, of India, who gave the keynote speeches 10 years ago, are not there now. Russia has not been welcomed for some years now, Keir Starmer is not going to be there. Macron’s not going to be there,” Jan Aart Scholte, professor of global transformations and governance challenges at Leiden University, told CNBC Thursday.
“True, the prime minister of Spain is going to be there and there are a couple of others, but the general picture of the heads of state, of government that are there is that it’s not the big players. I think if you went through a list of the G20, it’s going to be a small minority [who are attending],” he said.