Geneva/New York, January 26 – Learning from the harsh realities inflicted by the pandemic, some world leaders gave strong support to multilateralism as a way to deal with global crises as they contributed ideas and visions for the future to the virtual meeting of the Davos Agenda 2021.
“This is the hour of multilateralism,” said Angela Merkel, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, urging support for the global campaign of vaccination against Covid-19, for transparency, international organizations and for building resilience among nations.
Speaking on the second day of the Davos Agenda 2021, Merkel welcomed US President Joe Biden’s decision to retain the US membership in the World Health Organization. Several other top leaders of governments and international organizations also lauded Biden for promptly claiming back the WHO seat and reversing former President Donald Trump’s decision to exit WHO.
“If we want to have multilateral agreements, common standards have to be put down as regards conditions of work and the environment. We have to be very fast at finding new answers to digitalization,” she said. “We need to address global monopolies, but going it alone won’t suffice to address them.”
“The vaccine shows we can find a way out of this pandemic, but it will be much harder than we think,” she said.
Merkel pushed back calls for Europe to take sides between the United States and China in a move that she appeared to agree with Chinese President Xi Jinping who addressed the Davos Agenda 2021 the day earlier.
“I would very much wish to avoid the building of blocs,” Merkel said. “I don’t think it would do justice to many societies if we were to say this is the United States and over there is China and we are grouping around either the one or the other. This is not my understanding of how things ought to be.”
“The Chinese president spoke yesterday, and he and I agree on that. We see a need for multilateralism.”
“But there is one question where we are not in immediate agreement. Probably the question of what it means when you have different social models. When does interference begin and where does it end? When do you stand up for elementary values that are indivisible?” she said.
The Chinese leader warned the US president not to nudge Europe into an alliance against Beijing, saying that any attempt to freeze China out of global trade and technology networks risked reigniting the Cold War.
“Forming small groups or launching new cold wars on the world stage; excluding, threatening and intimidating others; resorting to decoupling, supply disruption or sanctions would only push the world towards division, if not confrontation,” Xi said.
“Repeatedly, history and the reality reminded us that, if we walk down the path of confrontation — be it a cold war, a hot war, a trade war or a tech war — all countries are going to suffer in terms of their interests and their people’s well-being.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who addressed the forum at its opening, said 2021 offered the world the opportunity for an inclusive recovery from the pandemic while also tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.
“We have reached a moment of truth. In 2021 we must address these fragilities and put the world on track”, he said.
“It is time to change course and take the sustainable path. And, this year, we have a unique opportunity to do so. We can use our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to move from fragilities to resilience.”
“Inclusive and sustainable recovery around the globe will depend on the availability and effectiveness of vaccines for all, immediate fiscal and monetary support in both developed and developing countries, and transformative longer-term stimulus measures”, he said.
Top leaders from scores of governments, international organizations and corporations were invited to hold the virtual January 25-29 debate known as the Davos Agenda 2021 to try to rebuild trust while the world is struggling to stamp out Covid-19 that has killed over 2 million people in the past 12 months.
Organized by the World Economic Forum, the Davos Agenda 2021 under the theme “A crucial Year to Rebuild Trust,” is expected to gather the world’s foremost leaders to address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to reset priorities and the urgency to reform systems have been growing stronger around the world,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
“Rebuilding trust and increasing global cooperation are crucial to fostering innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery. This unique meeting will be an opportunity for leaders to outline their vision and address the most important issues of our time, such as the need to accelerate job creation and to protect the environment.”
The five-day program themes are:
–Designing cohesive, sustainable, resilient economic systems (25 January)
–Driving responsible industry transformation and growth (26 January)
–Enhancing stewardship of the global commons (27 January)
–Harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (28 January)
–Advancing global and regional cooperation (29 January)
Organizers said more than 1,500 business, government and civil society leaders from over 70 countries “will set the agenda for a critical year ahead and discuss how to catalyse impact in the rapidly advancing Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The conclusions from the Davos Agenda week will feed into task forces working on global issues for the upcoming Special Annual Meeting in Singapore.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) and Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF) are among the heads of international organizations who will address the forum
WEF said the Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril.
It said the pandemic has “demonstrated that no institution or individual alone can address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges of our complex, interdependent world. The pandemic has accelerated systemic changes that were apparent before its inception. The fault lines that emerged in 2020 now appear as critical crossroads in 2021. The Davos Agenda will help leaders choose innovative and bold solutions to stem the pandemic and drive a robust recovery over the next year.”
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