The world expectantly awaits word from its most powerful man, Barack Obama who delivers his State of the Union address on January 27. On that day, France’s Nicholas Sarkozy will make a keynote speech at Europe’s most prestigious annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, of global political, business and civil society leaders.
The only significant American personality at the World Economic Forum’s Davos meetings will be Lawrence Summers. This continues the Obama White House snub to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss body whose mission is to “improve the state of the world”. During the Bush presidency, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and numerous Cabinet members, attended Davos.
Sarkozy, who has pretensions to European leadership, is the top draw at Davos this year. He has cooled to Obama in recent months despite being the most pro-American French President in half a century. Other political glitterati at Davos will include the Presidents of Brazil, South Korea and South Africa. The Prime Ministers of Canada and Spain will also attend.
Note EU-Digest: Have the Davos meetings outlived their time or have they always been a "talk fest" platform for the International financial sector to impress on the world political leadership that they know what is best for the Hlobal economy. Given what we know today this is not the case, so why don't we concentrate on the G20 meetings instead as an alternative.
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