| | | | |  | | By Suzanne Lynch | | | Send ideas here | Tweet @suzannelynch1 | View in your browser GREETINGS FROM BRUSSELS, where Global Playbook is in full recovery mode after a busy week of news, analysis and (yes, we’ll admit it) partying at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Below, we’ve got an exclusive interview with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as Kyiv fights to maintain Western support in its existential war with Russia. DAVOS REDUX: But first, we spoke with a range of WEF attendees to get their reflections on this year’s gathering. The takeaway? Yes, Davos delivered in terms of the opportunities for off-diary networking and meetings, but the absence of many top leaders — U.S. President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Germany’s Olaf Scholz — meant it lacked the star quality of years past. WADING INTO CONTROVERSY: In the meantime, the WEF is having some difficult conversations of its own as it finds itself in the midst of an internal revolt over the most controversial of geopolitical issues — the Israel-Gaza war. Read on …
| | WEF’S MIDDLE EAST CONUNDRUM | | BACKLASH BEGINS: The good people at World Economic Forum may have believed they’d escaped their annual set-piece event without a furor about the mother-of-all political hot potatoes — not so fast. The WEF is grappling with pushback from a vocal group of attendees about what they see as an unbalanced representation of the Israel-Gaza war. Discontent in the ranks: Playbook hears several participants are penning letters to founder Klaus Schwab, and the WEF board, about what they see as an insufficient focus on the plight of Palestinians last week. Reminder: The death toll in Gaza was reaching 25,000 as Israeli President Isaac Herzog was welcomed to the stage last Thursday, while more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza following the Hamas massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7. Youth voice: In particular, a younger cohort of Davos attendees are making their views heard. Among them are those in the “Global Shapers” community (which has thousands of members under the age of 30) and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a sister organization of WEF focused on innovators. It's a headache for WEF as it tries to engage a younger generation. Getting heated: Tensions surfaced at various points last week. An audience member who was part of the Global Shapers group pointed out during one event that some of their compatriots were at that very moment trying to survive in Gaza. At a lunch, an attendee called out the lack of emphasis on the Palestinian perspective at the WEF this year. Speaking out: “The silence is deafening,” Palestinian-Jordanian molecular biologist Professor Rana Dajani, a Schwab fellow, told Playbook. “WEF — and I’m quoting who they say they are — they facilitate a global conversation to make the world a better place. This year’s theme was ‘rebuilding trust.’ But the biggest thing that’s happening today and that’s impacting every aspect of life globally is the Palestinian-Israel issues. And yet, at WEF this issue was not front and center, it was not mentioned in the opening remarks.” WEF response: In a statement to POLITICO, WEF said it invited President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to Davos, and that he nominated Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, to attend in his stead. “We had over 50 leaders from the Middle East, including President Herzog of Israel and Dr Mohammad Mustafa … as well as leaders from Jordan, Qatar, Lebanon and the wider region,” a spokesman said. “All parties had an opportunity to voice their position and share their priorities.”
| | | | A message from IBM: IBM has for more than a century brought powerful new technologies like AI into the world with trust. Now, our watsonx.governance platform helps organizations manage their AI responsibly at enterprise scale and prepare for AI regulations coming worldwide. See how it works at ibm.com/governance. | | | GEN Z SPEAKS UP: WEF is not alone in navigating the tricky terrain of Israel-Palestinian politics. From the White House to the European Commission, some of the institutions at the heart of the international response to the war have been roiled by pushback from their own staffers on perceived neglect of Palestinians’ concerns. REALPOLITIK: But it’s not just a generational divide. The gamble in inviting Herzog on stage was brought into sharp focus last week when it emerged that Swiss authorities were examining criminal complaints lodged against the Israeli president while he was in (neutral) Switzerland. (Israel is facing charges of genocide at the United Nations International Court of Justice, with the court due to give an update Friday.) WASHINGTON ON THE DEFENSIVE: Efforts to avoid the elephant in the room also crumbled once U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to the WEF stage last Wednesday. “Do Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian and Muslim lives?” asked the New York Times’ Tom Friedman, in a killer opening question. (Friedman, a respected columnist, is Jewish.) ‘No,’ America’s top diplomat answered, arguing that the U.S. has pushed Israel to minimize civilian harm in Gaza even as it supported the retaliation against Hamas. But as my colleague Alex Ward writes, that moment was one of the many times U.S. officials, in public and in private, were forced to explain the fractured state of American politics and competing visions of its foreign policy.
| | Brüssel, London, Paris… und jetzt kommt Playbook nach Berlin!
Our expert reporters are bringing their stellar journalism to another hub of European politics. We won’t be hiding out in Mitte – from the Bundestag and key institutions all the way to each of the Bundesländer, Berlin Playbook has got you covered for your daily dose of deutsche Politik. Hier anmelden und lesen. | | | | | KYIV’S CONUNDRUM: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week made his first in-person appearance at Davos since the war began, but his results were mixed: Yes, he secured face-to-face meetings with deep-pocketed Wall Street execs as he made the case for investment in Ukraine; but as we reported, he left without a coveted meeting with the Chinese delegation. Playbook interview: Playbook caught up with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Shmyhal Wednesday shortly after he wrapped up a high-stakes meeting with Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod. Fico, a firebrand populist who’s perhaps best known as a buddy of Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán, caused waves by stating last week that Ukraine should cede territory to end the war with Russia. Backing down: But Fico — a political bruiser and comeback kid who returned to the Slovak prime ministership late last year — appeared to be in a more conciliatory mood, signing up to a document that respects the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” The two countries also agreed to team up on a number of commercial projects (which may have sweetened the deal). Ukraine’s fears: It’s not just flagging U.S. support that’s keeping the Ukrainians awake at night. Fico’s flip-flopping points to a deeper concern for Kyiv: maintaining European backing. A bumper €50 billion EU package for Ukraine has stalled since last year, after Hungary blocked it, with EU leaders meeting in Brussels next week in a last-ditch effort to get it over the line. Ukraine’s needs: “This money is crucially important for us,” Shmyhal told me. “On the one side, it will let us finance our budget, on the other it will allow us to implement a process of rapid recovery in Ukraine despite the war.” (About €38 billion is earmarked for budgetary support, another €8 billion for investment projects.) Washington wobbles: Asked if he feared a second coming of Donald Trump, Shmyhal paused. “We have all the assurances from the United States about long-term support for Ukraine — for example the seizure of Russian assets to fund the Ukrainian recovery. We are working hard with the administration of President Biden and with Congress to have support for 2024.” But he added: “We’ll see how conditions develop in 2025.” Don’t mention Trump: “I believe that any president of the United States will support our fight for civilized values, our mutual values,” Shmyhal said, arguing that most American people back Ukraine. On Trump’s self-stated belief that he could end the war in 24 hours? “There is no one else who wants to finish this war more than Ukrainians. We believe that President Zelenskyy’s peace plan is the only instrument to bring about long-term and sustainable peace.” Need to go nuclear: Meanwhile, in an indication of the alarm in Europe about the prospect of Trump 2.0, senior EU figure Manfred Weber called for a European nuclear deterrent as it contemplates an absent U.S. “When I look at this year as a European politician, the first thing that goes through our minds is Trump,” he told my colleague Jakob Hanke Vela in an interview en route back from Ukraine Wednesday. The EU’s ability to protect itself without U.S. support is “the fundamental question that will be on our minds in 2024.”
| | | | A message from IBM:   | | | | | TRUMP WINS NEW HAMPSHIRE: Speaking of Trump, the former president’s winning streak continued with a decisive victory in New Hampshire Tuesday, placing him in pole position to become the Republican Party’s pick for president in November’s U.S. election. Hitting the campaign trail: President Biden will visit the key swing state of Wisconsin today to tout his economic plan, as the incumbent limbers up for what looks set to be a rerun of the Biden vs. Trump race. (Kamala Harris was in Wisconsin earlier this week.) Then, Biden is scheduled to visit South Carolina this weekend. Preparing the ground: As POLITICO reported last week, the prospect of a Trump reelection dominated chatter at Davos, and even prompted a Road to Damascus-style conversion by JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who praised The Donald’s first term in office. But in this column, the Economist warns that business embraces Trump at its peril — “Donald Trump is winning. Business, beware.” Worth a read. COP’S GENDER COPOUT: The organizers of the COP29 U.N. climate summit were left red-faced after Azerbaijan was forced to add women to its organizing panel after initially revealing a male-only cast. The oil-rich state, which will host the next U.N. climate talks in November, had announced a 29-member organizing committee comprised entirely of men, before miraculously finding 12 women to add to the list, following backlash. Not a good sign: The episode compounded concerns about the wisdom of holding the world’s most important climate forum in (another) authoritarian state. (Azerbaijan is a major oil producer, with fossil fuels making up more than 90 percent of its exports.) Another questionable personnel decision: Appointing former state oil exec Mukhtar Babayev to head up COP29. THE MODEL GLOBAL CITIZEN: Fresh from his trip to Davos, Blinken was in Africa this week — a visit that allowed America’s top diplomat to show off his formidable language skills: He gave a number of interviews in Côte d’Ivoire en francais, thanks to his upbringing in Paris. Campaign flashback: When he ran as a Democratic contender for president back in 2004, polyglot John Kerry did his best to hide his linguistic skills. His apparent French-ness was seized upon by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. “Good afternoon, or, as John Kerry might say, bonjour,” became a standard opening quip — a reminder that, in the United States, all politics is definitely local. PROGRAMMING NOTE MUNICH-BOUND: Global Playbook is heading to the Munich Security Conference that kicks off on Feb. 16, so be sure to get in touch with tips on where to find the best knödel. More details soon! Global Playbook couldn’t happen without Global Playbook Editor Zoya Sheftalovich. SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | London Playbook PM | Playbook Paris | Global Playbook | POLITICO Confidential | Sunday Crunch | EU Influence | London Influence | Digital Bridge | China Watcher | Berlin Bulletin | D.C. Playbook | D.C. Influence | All our POLITICO Pro policy morning newsletters
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