Empty seats at the 2025 World Economic Forum
Which world leaders will not be attending the meeting in Switzerland?
The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) is underway, and it is a key instance for world leaders to adress global and regional challenges. The organisation expects to convene over 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries. However, there is rising concern about the number of key leaders that will not be in attendance.
The WEF is supposed to be a world class event to discuss the most pressing challenges for the global economy. This year the Forum will take place from 20 to 24 January, in Davos, Switzerland.
Surprisingly, only one of the top seven industrialised nation leaders (G7) will be in Davos, outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz. US President Donald Trump - who will be sworn in on Monday 20 January - is expected to address the forum online on Thursday. Prof. Dr. Jan Aart Scholte, from the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme, was interviewed by CNBC to discuss the topic.
Dr. Scholte commented to CNBC, “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. 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.
There is a growing impression that the WEF has lost strength in the past twenty years, and this is highlighted by the number of world leaders that will not be flying to Davos, this year. However, Dr. Scholte underscored that this does not mean that it does not have influence in certain key areas of global economic governance.
If you want to know more about the 2025 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, read the CNBC article here.