DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) – As leaders from the world of politics and business arrive Tuesday in droves for the start of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the event’s founder is in somber mood.
Klaus Schwab, the 77-year-old chief of the world’s most recognized annual economic meeting, said he’s worried about Europe’s future, the fallout from plunging oil prices and gaping inequalities worldwide.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Schwab also justified the decision of the WEF to disinvite a delegation from North Korea, including its foreign minister, for its claim earlier this month that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. The WEF has been working hard to bring the North Koreans to the 45-year-old annual gathering at the highest level since the 1980s.
“We had to show solidarity with the global world opinion,” Schwab said late Monday. “We never cede to any pressure, but we have one principle which means that we observe U.N. sanctions. We do not know yet how the U.N. sanctions will come out, but we didn’t want to have the coincidence of the U.N. expressing sanctions – tough sanctions – this week and at the same time, we act against those sanctions.”
Schwab said he was “very much looking forward” to the arrival of the North Korean delegation and laid out his hope that the country would qualify one day “hopefully sooner rather than later.”