Board of Peace, Trump withdraws invitation to Carney. Spain pulls out

"We are in a severe situation. I am here to show Danish support at a very difficult time." This was said by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen upon her arrival in Nuuk, according to Ritzau news agency. The Copenhagen leader also said that she and the Greenlandic Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, 'must be very close to each other at this time', adding: 'So I would call it a working day in which we prepare our next steps.

Council President Giorgia Meloni said she had spoken with US President Trump about the Board of Peace. "I said that for us there are objectively constitutional problems with the way the initiative was configured, asking also for the willingness to reopen this configuration to meet the needs not only of Italy but also of other European countries. We must try to do this work. The presence of countries like ours can make a difference. This is our position, then we will see what the margins are to find shared positions'. These were Meloni's words after the Italy-Germany intergovernmental summit.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is flying to Greenland for talks on the future of the island, after President Donald Trump appears to have reased the tone of his threats to take control of the Arctic territory. Frederiksen left for Nuuk from Brussels, where she attended a summit of EU leaders and met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. In the Greenlandic capital she will hold talks with the territory's premier, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

"We agree that Nato should increase its commitment in the Arctic," Frederiksen wrote in a post on X after the meeting with Rutte. "Defence and security in the Arctic concerns the entire alliance."

The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced that he plans to visit Greenland 'in the coming weeks'. In an interview with Bfmtv, he specified that the visit will take place at the invitation of the Greenland authorities and after the agreement between NATO and the United States regarding the Arctic island and Donald Trump's expansionist aims. Barrott then emphasises that 'there are no details' on this agreement, announced by Trump after his conversation with Mark Rutte in Davos: 'the only thing I can say is that we support Denmark, which of course is sovereign and is the main actor in these negotiations. We will always support it, as will the Greenland authorities'.

"What a great trip to Davos it was. So many things accomplished, including the planting of an agreement with NATO on Greenland. And then the BOARD OF PEACE. WOW!!!" US President Donald Trump wrote this on his Truth profile at the end of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"We reaffirm our full commitment and support for Ukraine from day one and on an ongoing basis, together with the member states. We are the main supporters, having already provided almost EUR 200 billion so far." This was said by a European Commission spokeswoman during the daily press briefing. Asked about the hypothesis of a European army, raised by Volodymyr Zelensky in Davos, Brussels points out that it has so far integrated Kiev "into defence programmes, such as Safe and Edip, allowing it to carry out joint procurements with member states and enabling its industry to invest together with European industry".

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Brussels this morning, emphasising the need for cooperation on the Arctic and strengthening the Alliance's deterrence. The meeting comes after the announcement on the sidelines of the World Eonomic Forum in Davos of an agreed framework with the United States to start negotiations on Greenland and Arctic security. In a message posted on X, Rutte wrote: 'It was a pleasure to see Danish PM Mette Frederiksen in Brussels this morning. We are working together to ensure that all of NATO is safe and secure and we will build on our cooperation to strengthen deterrence and defence in the Arctic. Denmark continues to make solid contributions to our shared security and is increasing investment to do even more'.

"President von der Leyen was personally invited" to be part of the Board of Peace "and appreciated the invitation. We share the goal of peace and have done all we can to contribute to this as well. And we also share the goal of the second phase of the global plan to end the Gaza conflict. We are currently discussing with the United States on how to jointly achieve this goal, and we remain in contact with other partners on this issue as well'. This was stated by the first spokeswoman of the European Commission, Paula Pinho, in the daily press briefing.

"Last year in Davos, I said: keep calm. This year I would say: be steadfast. Steady nerves means not reacting immediately to everything you see, and as Christine Lagarde said, it is crucial to distinguish the noise from what is really happening. You need steady nerves to assess the situation and react appropriately: an immediate reaction risks being the wrong one'. This was said by the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, addressing the panel on the global outlook at the World Economic Forum.

"At the same time, there is another important lesson to be learned: those who have too many addictions must learn to manage them. If entrepreneurs and policy makers leave Davos without having realised that they have to manage their dependencies, then they have missed the point. If we are overly dependent on the US as a market, or on China for critical supplies, we must diversify".

The ECB president also spoke on the topic of Ai, emphasising the importance of clear rules and international collaboration for the development of artificial intelligence. The ECB president also stressed the need to discuss how Ai will be governed and regulated: "Will it be open source or not? How does it work? How is it regulated?" A crucial point, according to Lagarde, is to avoid repeating the mistakes already seen with social media, where uncontrolled use has had negative impacts on young people: "We need to address this discussion to use Ai without endangering the social fabric, young people and children".

"We are studying the impact of AI on the labour market, which involves major transformations. The skills demanded in the marketplace are rapidly changing, and we expect about 60 per cent of jobs to be affected by the impact of AI in advanced economies, to be transformed or cancelled. It is like a tsunami'. These were the words of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the closing panel of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"We, as institutions that produce data and analysis on what is happening, have a responsibility to distinguish signals from noise: that is how you maintain confidence." The ECB president added: "I would like to make a second point. Building confidence takes time, whereas it takes very little to erode it. I think trust has been eroded, perhaps a little, perhaps a lot. But our duty, in the spirit of dialogue, is undoubtedly to rebuild what may have been compromised."

On the subject of the strained relations with the United States, the ECB President said: "I have great trust and affection for the American people and I know that, in the end, deeply rooted values will prevail. That is my strongest hope and belief'. Lagarde denied the existence of a 'total dissociation' between Europe and the US and said she was speaking 'with an emotional component'.

In addition, she appealed for inequalities to be curbed: 'We must pay close attention to the distribution of wealth and inequalities, which are becoming deeper and wider. If we do not take this seriously, we are heading towards very serious problems'.

"I think we have heard a lot of criticism of Europe in recent days. But, if you like, this has even been helpful. We should thank those who criticise, because it has allowed us to become fully aware of the fact that we need to be more focused". This was stated by the ECB president during a panel on the Davos global outlook. "We have to work on alternatives and we have to focus strongly on innovation, increasing productivity and overall system improvement. Furthermore, we must remember that we are interdependent. If we look at artificial intelligence, which has been talked about a lot in recent days, we see that it is capital-, energy- and data-intensive. And it only thrives if all these resources are abundant. If we do not work cooperatively, if we do not define new rules of the game, there will be less data to process and less capital circulating between countries. And this is not conducive to the growth of a sector that is today a driving force and offers enormous prospects in terms of productivity'.

"There is no doubt that the world is changing. In fact it has been changing for a long time. There are two new characteristics that we have to accept. The first is that we live in a world that is much more exposed to shocks. We are taken by surprise by geopolitics, technology, climate. We are not used to moving in such a rapidly changing environment. The second is that we have to recognise that we have entered a multipolar world'. This was said by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva speaking at a panel at the World Economic Forum on the global outlook. "There are regions today that have gained an economic and geopolitical weight that they did not have in the past," Georgieva continued. "I can say this from the perspective of the International Monetary Fund: we take a very close look at all of our 191 member countries. For a long time we conducted analyses at the national level and then at the global level. Today we recognise that it is also necessary to look at the regions, to observe the world for what it is becoming'.

According to ECB President Christine Lagarde, the world has not yet arrived at a breakdown of the global order, as stated by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in his speech to the Wef, but it is necessary to think about 'alternatives, B-plans'. Lagarde spoke at a panel on the global outlook at the World Economic Forum: "We should rather talk about alternatives, identifying much more than we have done in the past the weaknesses, the critical points, the dependencies and the margins of autonomy," she continued, adding that "from an economic and business perspective, I remain convinced that we depend on each other: there are very strong ties that unite us.

"My personal conclusion, as a central bank president, is that we have a responsibility to truth. My economists often say that you have to distinguish the signal from the noise, and I think there has been a lot of noise this week. It has been an extremely interesting and fascinating week in many respects, but our duty as central bankers and economists is precisely to separate the signals from the noise,' Lagarde concluded.

La presidente della Banca centrale europea Christine Lagarde partecipa alla 56a edizione del World Economic Forum (WEF) a Davos, in Svizzera, il 23 gennaio 2026. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

"It seems to me that Europe has guaranteed Ukraine's independence and has done everything to support it politically, financially and militarily. It seems to me that it is not generous towards Europe either". This was said by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on the sidelines of the Italy-Germany business forum in Rome, responding to a question on Volodymyr Zelensky's harsh intervention against Europe yesterday in Davos.

New tensions between the US and British allies. President Donald Trump, on the sidelines of a visit to the Davos Forum, took aim at the contribution made by allies - Great Britain in the lead - to the invasion of Afghanistan following the attack on 11 September 2001. Trump claimed that the contingents of other NATO countries would keep 'a little bit away from the front line' of the actual war. Words commented this morning as 'unpleasant' in a television interview by Keir Starmer's cabinet member, Deputy Minister Stephen Kinnock. Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Commons, also reacted to Trump's remarks by calling them an 'absolute insult'. Also offended was Conservative opposition MP Ben Obese-Jecty, an armed forces veteran who served in Afghanistan, who said 'it is sad to see the sacrifice of our nation and our Nato partners depreciated in such bad taste'. "How dare Trump," commented Ed Davey, anti-Trump leader of the centrist Liberal Democrat Party. All then recalled the price paid by London, with a total of 457 casualties, in the long years of the Afghan mission.

In an official communiqué on the last day of proceedings in Davos, the World Economic Forum announced global commitments to invest in skills development for workers. "The Reskilling Revolution initiative," it reads, "is on track to reach more than 850 million people around the world, moving closer to the goal of ensuring 1 billion individuals have better access to skills, education and economic opportunities.

Significant space is also devoted to artificial intelligence and its impact on the world of work: "New commitments include business promises, university-employer partnerships and national skills accelerators focused on rethinking how people enter the labour market, job transitions and maintaining employability in an economy increasingly shaped by AI.

In a post on X, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said he was working together with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to increase deterrence and defence of the Arctic. The post comes after Donald Trump's new attacks in his speech in Davos, in which he confirmed that he wants 'ownership' of Greenland.

China has not at the moment confirmed US President Donald Trump's visit in April, as announced by the US leader himself. "The stable development of Sino-US relations is in the common interest of the peoples of the two countries and meets the expectations of the international community," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun at today's daily press conference in Beijing. In addition, he reiterated that diplomacy at the highest level plays an irreplaceable role in bilateral relations, but said he had no further details to provide on the subject at the moment.

"I look forward to meeting President Xi," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from Davos, according to Reuters news agency. The US president said he was expected to travel to the People's Republic in April, while Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit the US by the end of 2026.

"Maybe we should have put Nato to the test: invoke Article 5 and force Nato to come here and protect our southern border from further invasion by illegal immigrants, thus freeing up a large number of Border Patrol agents for other tasks." US President Donald Trump writes this in a post on his social Truth.

Further reading

Ecco cosa prevede l’articolo 5 del trattato Nato

07 March 2025

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Spain will not join the Board of Peace for Gaza promoted by US President Donald Trump. Sanchez said, at the end of the extraordinary European Council in Brussels, that the decision is for 'consistency', stressing that the initiative 'is outside the framework of the United Nations' and 'did not include the Palestinian National Authority'.

On Greenland 'the issue is national security'. Thus the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, interviewed by Repubblica. As for the negotiations underway: 'There is a framework and NATO will submit it to all its members, including the European countries, who can then come and negotiate with us. Now you have to ask the question to your leaders'. Is the hypothesis of imposing tariffs on countries that will not agree with you still on the table? "Nothing is on the table and nothing is off the table. There is a framework."

US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte reached a verbal agreement on Greenland during their meeting in Davos on Wednesday, but no document has yet been produced that enshrines a future agreement. Sources close to the discussions told CNN.

Chinese President Xi Jinping defended "the central role" of the UN in the international system during a phone call this morning with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. This was reported by state-run network Cctv, according to which Xi emphasised how turbulent the current international situation is and called on Brazil, a constructive force like China that works for peace and stability in the world, to reform and improve global governance.

The talks came in the aftermath of the constitutive signing in Davos of the Board of Peace, promoted by US President Donald Trump for the purpose of working on conflict resolution and widely seen as a direct competitor to the Glass Palace. China and Brazil have received an invitation from the tycoon to join the Board of Peace, but have not yet withdrawn their reservations. China and Brazil "must resolutely stand on the right side of history, better defend the common interests of the two countries and the global South, and jointly uphold the central role of the United Nations and the principles of fairness and international justice", Xi said, calling for "reform and improvement of global governance".

Donald Trump has withdrawn his invitation to Canadian PM Mark Carney to join the Board of peace. In a post on X, the US president wrote: 'Dear PM Carney, please let this letter serve as a representation that the Board of peace is withdrawing its invitation regarding Canada's membership in what will be the most prestigious council of leaders ever assembled, at any time'. On the eve of Trump's arrival in Davos, Carney had delivered a tough speech at the World economic forum, during which, although without explicitly mentioning the US president, he had denounced the 'breakdown' of the US-led world order, calling on the middle powers to ally themselves to keep liberal values alive.

US President Donald Trump said that once an agreement on Greenland is reached, the US will be able to 'do whatever it wants'. The US leader told reporters after his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We can do anything we want to do," Trump said, claiming that the will exists to reach an understanding on Greenland and that something could happen as early as the next two weeks.