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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will attend the World Economic Forum’s annual conclave in Davos next week.
World Economic Forum president Borge Brende announced the attendees at a news conference on Tuesday. He said attendees, which also include dozens of foreign ministers, would take a “hard look” at global cooperation and security.
President Joe Biden is not expected to attend, and two top Biden economic officials — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo — will also skip the gathering, according to agency spokespeople. Yellen attended the gathering in 2022 (and held court in nearby Zurich last year), while Raimondo was also there in 2022.
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Other attendees include Chinese Premier Li Qiang and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Brende said.
It’s not particularly surprising to see Biden and some other U.S. officials skip the gathering, given the upcoming U.S. election and rise of populism. This particular dance is becoming familiar among nervous Western centrists: French President Emanuel Macron skipped the gathering in 2022 when he was up for election but is expected to attend this year, a French official told Semafor.
The populists, by contrast, have nothing to lose and seem to enjoy roiling the global elite: Donald Trump, the last U.S. president to attend, delivered his “America first” message on the mountaintop, and Argentina’s Javier Milei is expected next week.
