Trump, Zelenskyy, Carney dominate Davos 2026: As it happened

• During his highly anticipated speech, Trump criticized European NATO allies over defense spending and said he 'won't use force' to take over the Danish territory of Greenland
• The US president also launched his 'Board of Peace' at the event, a potential alternative to the UN, with Germany, France and several other traditional US allies distancing themselves from the initiative; the leaders of Hungary, Saudi Arabia and Argentina were among those who joined 
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Trump, with Zelenskyy saying the terms of postwar security guarantees for Ukraine were finalized 
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in his address, talked about a 'rupture in the world order' where he called for 'middle powers' to work together
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the 'pole position' of the US is now being challenged by Russia and China, claiming the world is entering 'an era of great power politics'  
• French President Emmanuel Macron, wearing sunglasses due to a burst blood vessel in his eye, said there is a global 'shift towards autocracy' and more violence

DW's senior business editor Ashutosh Pandey was in Davos this week to watch the action unfold, here are his key takeaways:

The Donald Trump show

As expected, the US president dominated this year's annual meeting. There was a sigh of relief over Greenland, but most people I spoke with remain wary of Trump. His speech was widely considered boring and predictable.

The flashy signing of the Board of Peace charter also received a lukewarm response from attendees in the Congress Hall. There was the occasional applause, but it came from a very small crowd in the front rows.

There were several moments of gasps and exasperation, including when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was called on stage to "talk about President Trump and his accomplishments." 

The absence of WEF branding at the event was noticeable but ultimately, most attendees were glad Trump didn't ruin the annual meeting and that he cooled things off on Greenland.

The star act 

Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, inarguably delivered the best speech of the event. Even with Davos being the Donald Trump show, Mark Carney was its star.

His forceful speech was described as historic and the defining moment of this year's Davos.

His words will be etched in the Davos annals: "Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition."

Ukraine: Back from the brink

For a while, it seemed as if Trump's ambitions for Greenland would completely overshadow the Ukraine war. Especially in light of reports that President Zelenskyy would not be traveling to the Alpine town.

But then Trump announced that he would meet with Zelenskyy to discuss the plans to make peace with Russia.

Nevertheless, there were no breakthroughs, and Zelenskyy later used his speech to heavily criticize his European allies, a move that was met with mixed reactions by the attendees I spoke to.

Former United Nations Under-Secretary General Volker Perthes thinks a Board of Peace as originally conceived could work for Gaza but sets little hope on the expanded version pushed by Donald Trump. Perthes says the organization would try to be a global, all-purpose board "organized like a private club."

Just hours after launching his Board of Peace initiative at Davos on Thursday, Trump announced the first invitation to be withdrawn.

The US president rescinded the invitation sent out to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, without saying way, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.

Canada did not initially commit to joining the Board of Peace, but Carney had said he could envisage such a move once details were finalized.

However, Carney's speech on Tuesday was seen as a criticism of the Trump administration, despite Carney never mentioning the US president by name.

Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), spoke at one of the final Davos panels on Friday.

She took issue with the speech made by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday, in which he said the world order is "in the midst of a rupture," in a not-so-subtle reference to the increasing global tensions since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

"I'm not exactly ‍on the same page ​as ​Mark," Lagarde said.

"I think that we policymakers are at a point where ‍we have to look at Plan B, but ​even with those plans B ... I'm not sure that ⁠we ​should be talking about rupture," she ‌said. "I ‌think we should be talking about alternatives."

Welcome back as we cover of the last day of the 2026 WEF conference in Davos.

The tumultuous summit, dominated bythe Greenland dispute between the US administration and its European allies, seems to be drawing a relatively calm end with Donald Trump back in Washington.

European elites are breathing a sigh of relief as the US walks back its military and tariff threats.Also on Friday, the head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, spoke at the summit, disputing comments made by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Swiss resort earlier in the week.

Follow us for the latest updates.

Thank you for following our coverage of the World Economic Forum so far.

We'll be back when politicians and business leaders begin meeting on Friday morning for the conference's final day.

Main topics on Thursday in Davos included:

• Plans for the "Board of Peace" led by US President Trump, along with who is — and is not — part of it
• A call from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for action to end Russia's war in his country
• Many reactions to yesterday's announcement of a framework to keep the US from using force to seize Greenland
• An address from German Chancellor Merz on the threats posed by a world order based on power politics

 

 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has commented to the people of Canada after returning from Davos and appears to have hit back at US President Donald Trump's claim that "Canada lives because of the United States."

"Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security and in rich cultural exchange," Carney said in a national address, but emphasized: "Canada doesn't live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian."

Trump's inflammatory comment came a day after Carney addressed the Davos meeting with a speech that earned a rare standing ovation.

Canada, a founding NATO member, has been among the countries finding themselves in Trump's crosshairs during his second term in office.

Trump has repeatedly stated that Washington would make its northern neighbor the 51st state of the US. 

Tech mogul Elon Musk said humanoid robots could hit shelves next year as he spoke at his very first Davos appearance.

Musk, who has long been a critic of the World Economic Forum, on some topics was brimming with optimism as he gave some of forecast a future teeming with robots

The South African-born entrepreneur predicted that robots would transform society and would help humanity by reducing the need for human work.

"There will be such an abundance of goods and services because," he said. "There’ll be more robots than people."

He added that "everyone on Earth" is going to want a robot to take care of their parents or children. He said Tesla will begin selling robots to the public by the end of next year.

Musk's companies include Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink, and said their goal is to "maximize the probability that civilization has a great future."

Musk also predicted the AI boom would result in models that are "smarter than any human by the end of this year, and I would say no later than next year."

"And then probably by 2030 or 2031, so five years from now, AI will be smarter than all of humanity collectively," he said.

Musk has made a series of grandiose predictions that have not come true, including saying in 2019 that Tesla would have autonomous robotaxis within a year (the first came out in 2025); in 2017, he said SpaceX would fly private citizens around the Moon by 2018 (this has not happened); in 2014 he said humans would go to Mars in 10 to 12 years (technically, there is still a small chance this could work out).

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner revealed a "master plan" regarding the redevelopment of the Gaza Strip.

Using slides showing development plans and images showing skyscrapers and glitzy apartments titled "New Gaza," Kushner said the Palestinian territory would become "a place that the people there can thrive, have great employment."

"In the Middle East they build cities like this, you know for two or three million people, they build this in three years," Kushner said. "And so stuff like this is very doable if we make it happen." 

Kushner spoke of investments of at least $25 billion (€21.3 billion) to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and public services in the devastated Palestinian territory.

"It could be a hope. It could be a destination," he said.

The war between Israel and the Hamas militant group caused widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip. It was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas is designated as a terror organization by the US, the EU, Israel, Germany and other nations. 

A ceasefire took effect last October, which has reduced the level of bombing and fighting and increased aid deliveries, but for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza continue to live in temporary shelters at displacement camps or in bombed-out buildings.

More than 470 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the ceasefire began in October, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry, a part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Trump is chairman of the so-called Board of Peace, designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip after the war between Hamas and Israel. Traditional US allies, such as France and Britain, have raised doubts about the board. Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership, and the invitation for Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago, has also sparked controversy.

Nearly a year ago, Trump floated plans to convert Gaza into a "Riviera of the Middle East," a move that drew condemnation from many quarters. Trump has called the devastated Gaza Strip "great real estate." 

At the time, he also appeared somewhat vague on questions dealing with what would happen to Palestinians living there, but said it would be populated with "the world's people ... Palestinians also, Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said US, Ukrainian and Russian representatives would hold three-way talks in the United Arab Emirates later this week.

Zelenskyy said negotiations on Friday and Saturday would be the "first trilateral meeting" to be held among the states and added, "I think this is good."

The Ukrainian leader said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine was "finished" but needed to be signed by and implemented. He also said the remaining issue with Moscow concerns "the eastern part of our country," and that Russian territorial claims to the land were "the most difficult" topic. 

US special envoy Steve Witkoff was scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later on Thursday before heading to Abu Dhabi.

There have been no direct official talks between Ukraine and Russia for a number of months, with Istanbul being the most recent venue in July last year.

Abu Dhabi has been used for informal meetings to discuss the exchange of prisoners of war between Russian and Ukrainian military officials.

After his one-on-one meeting with US President Donald Trump in Davos on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spared no criticism of his fellow European leaders in a World Economic Forum speech, chiding them for timidity in the face of fundamental threats to democracy.

Zelenskyy tore into the bloc over what he called its slow and overly cautious approach to confronting the very real threat on its doorstep as war rages into its fourth year on the continent and European leaders appear to be in disarray over how to deal with Trump's approach to alliances and geopolitics.

Zelenskyy presented a laundry list of beefs with the bloc, mainly having to do with inaction in the face of danger — such as asking why Nicolas Maduro was on trial but Vladimir Putin is not, why the US is able to seize Venezuelan oil tankers while Russia's shadow fleet sails the world untouched. 

He also criticized the bloc for not using frozen Russian assets to aid the Ukrainian war effort before adding that it would have been far "cheaper for allies to cut Russia's access to components for missiles instead PURL" — the NATO arms acquisition and distribution scheme. 

Furthermore, he said Europe's "problem" is one of mindset, arguing that the bloc "remains a fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers" despite having the potential to be "a global force." Urging Europe to find the "courage to act and act on time," he said that "only actions create real order" imploring EU leaders not to "degrade ourselves to secondary roles." 

Lastly, he blasted the European response to Trump's threats of taking Greenland by force, asking, "if you send 40 soldiers to Greenland, what message does it send? Those soldiers won't protect anything." 

After warning that Europe needs a united fighting force and that NATO only exists as such due to the "belief that the US will act," Zelenskyy said, "when you refuse to help people fighting for democracy, consequences return."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described his one-hour meeting with US President Donald Trump in Davos on Thursday as "productive." 

The Ukrainian leader said he and Trump discussed the peace plan put forth by the Trump administration as well as air defense capabilities.

Zelenskyy announced on X that the two "discussed ‌the ⁠work of our teams," adding that these were now meeting and communicating "practically every day." ​

"Our previous meeting with President Trump helped ​strengthen the protection of our skies, and I ⁠hope ​that this time we will reinforce ‌it ‌further as well," the Ukrainian leader wrote

Moreover, Zelenskyy said Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators would be meeting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday and Saturday in hopes of ending Russia's nearly four-year invasion. 

US President Donald Trump has continued to dominate headlines in Davos with a whirlwind schedule of meetings. On Thursday, he sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"The meeting was good with President Zelenskyy. We'll see how it turns out," said Trump.

Asked by reporters if he had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin after the one-on-one, Trump said, "This war has to end."

Trump went on to say that a peace deal in the nearly four-year conflict that he himself promised to end exactly a year ago was "reasonably close." He then added that both sides would be "stupid" not to enter a peace agreement.

It was initially uncertain whether Zelenskyy would travel to Davos due to intensified Russian airstrikes that have left millions of Ukrainians without heat or electricity in the dead of winter. 

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner are currently engaged in talks with Putin in an effort to end Moscow's deadly and unprovoked full-scale invasion. 

Unveiling his "Board of Peace" in Davos, US President Donald Trump said the body was "something very, very unique for the world" which "has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created."

He said that, after rebuilding the Gaza Strip, the Board will "spread out to other things," but did not provide details. 

So, what exactly is it? According to a draft charter seen by the Reuters news agency, the ⁠board, which would be chaired by Trump, would aim to be "a more nimble and effective international peace-building body."

Some world leaders and observers have raised concerns that the new initiative is being set up as a rival body to the UN, but Trump insisted that the Board would "work with others including the United Nations."

Trump claims that around 60 invitations have been sent to world leaders, of which around 35 have responded, but the full membership list remains unclear. The list of attendees at the unveiling on Thursday, according to a forum schedule, was heavy on the Middle East and South America — but remained short on major US allies from Europe.

The Board of Peace members who joined Trump on the stage in Davos on Thursday largely held close ties to Trump, including Hungary's Viktor Orban and Argentina's Javier Milei.

Officials from Bahrain, Morocco, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Mongolia also signed the founding document.

"Who can say no to Trump?" one Arab official told the Reuters news agency.