The volatile situation in Pakistan and prospects for Middle East peace were set to take centre stage in Davos on Thursday, after a first day dominated by talk of a US recession.
President Pervez Musharraf, on a tour of Europe, was to appear at the annual gathering of the world’s political and business elite in a discussion on peace and stability, together with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Barham Salih, the Iraqi deputy prime minister.
He was then scheduled to answer “Three Crucial Questions for the President of Pakistan” posed by former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
President Musharraf held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice here on Wednesday — marking the highest-level US contact with the president since the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
During their meeting, Rice stressed that next month’s elections in Pakistan had to be seen to be “free and fair” and carry the “confidence” of the Pakistani people.
Earlier in his Europe tour, Musharraf held talks with EU foreign policy Javier Solana and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. After Davos he will head to London.
Leaving behind the turmoil in his home country, he has used the trip to try and polish Pakistan’s tarnished image overseas and to talk up the February elections.
This year’s Davos forum has drawn 27 heads of state or government, 113 cabinet ministers and several hundred corporate titans to the snow-covered and sunny Swiss Alps.
Israeli President Shimon Peres was due to give the opening remarks, with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also present.
The Palestinian side was to be represented by prime minister Salam Fayyad, with International Middle East envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair moderating the debate.
Later Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan and Microsoft founder Bill Gates will also address delegates, as will French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
Economics will not be forgotten, with European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet down to take part in a discussion on financial risk in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Another event will explore “myths and realities” of sovereign wealth funds that have been much in the news recently after investing in stricken Wall Street banks like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.
On Wednesday talk of a US recession was the prime topic of debate, with sharp criticism of the US Federal Reserve after its 75 basis point rate cut on Tuesday and disagreement over the dangers to the global economy.
Faced with turmoil on global stock markets and plummeting confidence, Rice attempted to reassure delegates at the formal opening ceremony.
“The US economy is resilient, its structure is sound, and its long-term economic fundamentals are healthy,” she said.
In recent years the annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort has been held against a backdrop of bumper corporate profits, strong economic growth and tame inflation.
But the mood this year has been distinctly gloomy, with a flurry of downbeat forecasts, and debate on the extent to which an unhealthy US economy would hit global growth.
“If the US catches a cold now, maybe the rest of the world gets the sniffles but certainly not pneumonia and I am not even sure the rest of the world gets a cold either,” said Fred Bergsten, head of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Some 1,000 of the world’s largest businesses pay 42,500 Swiss francs (26,300 euros, 38,700 dollars) apiece for annual membership to the Davos club — not counting the extra 11,000 euros per person to attend the meeting.