In the shadow of the struggle for Greenland and the front against Iran: the Davos Forum will open tonight

While tonight there will be a celebratory concert to open the discussions, tomorrow (Tuesday) the lectures and events themselves will begin, with one event overshadowing all of them – US President Donald Trump’s speech to the convention participants on Wednesday at noon (3:30 p.m. Israel time).

Trump arrives at the conference after imposing new tariffs on eight European countries following what he described as their “support for Denmark” on the Greenland issue, and after plunging transatlantic relations into the most acute crisis since World War II. He is expected to meet in Davos with the series of European leaders with whom he renewed the trade war.

Six of the seven 7G heads of state will also be in Davos, including the German chancellor and the Italian prime minister, according to the plan. Denmark announced today that its official representatives will not participate in the gathering. The Danish finance minister, who was supposed to attend the gathering, canceled his visit in protest of the American attempts to annex Greenland.

Trump will arrive in the town at the head of a huge delegation of hundreds of representatives, together with the American Minister of Economy, Minister of Commerce and Secretary of State. The US rented a local church to turn it into the “American Pavilion” during the convention and hold meetings with various parties there.

According to reports, Trump will stay in Davos for about two days, until Friday, and will hold many meetings. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are also expected to be part of the American delegation. Another significant factor who will come to the gathering will be Steve Miller, the man who is considered the architect of the potential takeover of Greenland by the American government.

More in focus: the reconstruction of Ukraine and the front against Iran

Along with Greenland, the issue of Ukraine is also expected to occupy a central part of the discussions, on and off the platforms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected to attend the gathering. Russian officials continue to be banned by the organizers of the convention, since the invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.

The various parties – the USA, Europe and Ukraine – are expected to discuss a plan to restore Ukraine whose budget is estimated at 800 billion euros. The issue of the security guarantees that the USA will offer to Ukraine – if any – in exchange for an agreement to end the war will also come up for discussion, according to the reports.

The front against Iran and the state of human rights in the country, as well as its nuclear program, are expected to be on the informal agenda of the gathering. The Iranian foreign minister who was supposed to attend the conference and was invited by the organizers will not arrive at the last minute – after the World Economic Forum canceled the invitation. The reasoning of the organizers was the suppression of the demonstrators and the murder of an unknown number of Iranians who were cheering against the current regime. “It is inappropriate for the Iranian government to be represented in Davos this year,” wrote the World Economic Forum on the X Network.

The one who will come is Ahmed al-Shara, the new president of Syria, who took power in the country about a year ago. The Syrian president will deliver a speech to the participants of the convention on Thursday afternoon.

Israel was represented, among others, as was the case in previous years, by the country’s President Yitzhak (Boji) Herzog, Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron and Economy Minister Nir Barkat.

As the interim chairmen of the World Economic Forum, after the founder Klaus Schwab retired, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, and Andre Hoffmann, vice president of the Roche company, were appointed. The plan behind the scenes is to offer the position of chairman to Christine Lagarde, who is currently serving as the president of the European Central Bank, if she is interested in it at the end of her term in the fall of 2027.