Zelenskyy to join world leaders in Davos

Gaza High Representative for the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov said the “page is turning” for Gazans, Palestinians and Israelis, and that a “successful turn” will depend on “all of us”.

“Who would have thought two years ago that we would be sitting here with this group of countries with this leadership giving the people of Gaza a new chance?” Mladenov said.

The Bulgarian diplomat also hailed the “great group of countries” joining the board, and said there are “more to come”.

Mladenov urged everyone in the room and watching the Davos meeting remotely to “put their fears and concerns away” and to “stop listening to rumours and gossip”.

Global stock markets rallied on Thursday as US President Donald Trump rolled back tariff threats linked to Greenland.

Trump said he had agreed the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland after meeting with Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary-general, claiming he would not use military force to seize the island from Denmark, and also dropping plans to impose extra tariffs on several European countries from 1 February.

Details of the future deal are scarce, although investors were visibly cheered by the de-escalation.

Read the full story below.

At the inauguration speech of the Board of Peace, Trump repeated his claim to have ended eight wars in the first year of his second presidency.

“One year ago, the war was on fire; things are calming down,” Trump said.

Talking about NATO, the US President hailed allies who have increased their military spending, but also sent a warning to Spain.

“Spain wants a free ride, I have to talk to them,” Trump said.

In June, Spain asked for an opt-out from NATO’s increased military spending target. In October, Trump said Spain should be expelled from NATO if it did not meet the new spending criteria.

Bulgaria has become the second country EU country to join the Board of Peace, after Hungary.

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, who leads the conservative party GERB, appeared onstage at the signing ceremony alongside Donald Trump and more than 30 representatives of other governments.

Donald Trump is addressing a ceremony launching the Board of Peace, with around 35 governments already signing up to join – among them Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Egypt, and NATO members Turkiye and Hungary.

The body is ostensibly meant to resolve international conflicts, with a billion-dollar entry fee for permanent membership.

Hungary was the first member state to have accepted former President Trump’s invitation to join his “Board of Peace” initiative, which aims to address global conflicts.

Last Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who attended the board’s launch ceremony in Davos today, said that Trump’s invitation signalled that Hungary’s “efforts for peace are being recognised.”

“President Trump has invited us to participate in the work of the Peace Council as founding members. We have, of course, accepted this honourable invitation,” Orbán stated.

The Hungarian government has not yet clarified whether it will pay the $1 billion contribution that guarantees permanent membership. Earlier, the White House noted that countries could pay the $1 billion fee to demonstrate a “deep commitment,” but it was not mandatory.

Besides Hungary, Belarus and Türkiye have joined the board, while France, Sweden, Slovenia, and Norway declined invitations. Germany and the European Union have not committed.

In his speech, the German chancellor said the EU’s agenda was clear: “Europe must be the antithesis of state-sponsored unfair trade practices, raw-material protectionism, technology bans and arbitrary tariffs.”

He underlined the progress made by the EU in consolidating trade partnerships, notably with the Mercosur bloc. However, he criticised the European Parliament’s decision to freeze the EU-Mercosur deal by referring it to the EU Court of Justice.

“We will not be stopped,” he added.

Merz also voiced optimism about the EU signing new trade agreements with Mexico and Indonesia, and soon India. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is due to travel to New Delhi to sign what she has described as a “historic trade agreement” and “the mother of all deals”.

Our correspondent Sasha Vakulina is in the room where Donald Trump will deliver a speech imminently. He is expected to elaborate on his plan for the so-called Board of Peace, originally meant to manage Gaza’s post-war recovery.

There was no Board of Peace ceremony originally on the WEF agenda, and the event was only announced today at 8:20 CET.

Trump is now repositioning the organisation as a major global alliance, with a $1 billion permanent membership fee. The proposal has rattled Europeans, and only one EU leader says they will be accepting Trump’s invitation to join: Viktor Orbán, reliably the US president’s closest ally in the bloc. However, he has not yet committed to paying the fee.

Speaking to the BBC from Davos, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said her country will not yet be accepting an invitation to join the Trump-led Board of Peace because of concerns about Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s possible participation.

Cooper described the board’s structure as a “legal treaty that raises much broader issues” than the original stated aim of end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and managing the devastated enclave’s recovery.

Several other European countries, including France, Italy, Norway and Sweden, have already indicated that they will not sign up to Trump’s plan, at least not yet.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in his speech that Germany has to regain its economic strength for Europe to be a key player in global politics once again.

“Germany can only lead the way in Europe if we are economically strong,” Merz insisted.

Germany’s policies need to be “exceptionally ambitious and courageous,” he said, and progress needs to be made on several fronts – all while maintaining support for Ukraine.

“We want to reduce dependencies that currently make us vulnerable, we want to ensure that our economy can tap into its full potential,” Merz said. “This can only work if we work together as a European Union.”

Belgium’s King Philippe and Prime Minister Bart De Wever met with Donald Trump in Davos on Wednesday evening, it has emerged.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also present at the meeting, according to De Wever’s office. Both sides agreed not to disclose any details of the conversation.

“We won’t find out anything about it either. At the request of the United States, that conversation will be kept confidential,” journalist Michaël Van Droogenbroeck told Het Journaal.

Merz told a Davos audience that boosting military capabilities means “to assert our sovereignty” and “strengthen our defence capabilities.”

“There is no room for isolationism and protectionism, ” Merz said. “We’re talking about strategically coordinated ties worldwide.”

“We want to be the alliance offering open markets and trade opportunities, and we want to strengthen the rules for fair trade. The anti-thesis for unfair trade, raw material protectionism, and arbitrary tariffs need to be replaced by rules that need to be respected by trading partners, and the EU is making great progress on this,” Merz said, referring to the latest Mercosur trade deal and the upcoming EU-India deal.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Merz called on Europe to stand together “resolutely and sovereignly” in this “new age of great powers,” adding that “we should not give up on NATO.”

It is now important, he said, to “repair the trust” on which NATO is built as it is the US “strongest competitive advantage.”

“Democracies do not have subordinates, they have allies and trusted friends,” he added.

At a meeting on the sidelines of the WEF last night, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed with Donald Trump’s insistence that the Arctic and Greenland “must be defended” from China and Russia.

“Trump is right. We have to do more there. We have to protect the Arctic against Russian and Chinese influence,” said Rutte.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he welcomed Trump’s remarks on Greenland in Davos yesterday, calling them “the right way to go,” because “any threat to acquire European territory would be unacceptable.”

In addition, Trump’s threats on new tariffs would also “undermine the foundations of transatlantic relations,” Merz said.

Germany was among the countries recently targeted by threats from Donald Trump, who had floated the idea of imposing a 10% tariff after Berlin expressed support for Denmark over Greenland.

Merz is now expected to outline Germany’s position on defence spending and its relationship with the United States and the future of NATO.

Italy will not join Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative. At least not for now.

The country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told Italy’s landmark TV show “Porta a Porta” that Italy was “open, willing and interested” in Trump’s proposal, which is aimed at resolving global conflicts.

But there is an issue of “constitutional incompatibility” that “does not allow us to sign immediately.”

“We need more time,” she added. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is prepared to contribute $1 billion to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace,” which would make Russia a permanent member.

He added that the funds could come from Russian assets frozen by the United States under the previous administration.

Putin said the remaining frozen assets held in the U.S. could be used to help rebuild areas damaged by fighting following a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, noting that discussions on the matter are underway with the U.S. administration.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed Trump’s announcement of the tariff suspension scheduled for 1 February against Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

“As Italy has always maintained, it is essential to continue fostering dialogue between allied nations,” said Meloni.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Wednesday evening that an American military seizure or takeover of Greenland is off the table as he laid out the three previously foreseen scenarios — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“The good would be to find an off-ramp and create a process to improve Arctic security through NATO. The bad one would be to have a tariff war continue, and the ugly one would have been military intervention,” said Stubb.

“We’ve now de-escalated, but obviously it’s not over yet.”

Speaking on Euronews’ flagship programme Europe Today, Jean-Claude Juncker urged the European Union to take a far more assertive stance towards the United States, insisting that Europe must show it is ready to defend its own interests.

Asked what he would do if he were still Commission president, Juncker said he would confront Donald Trump directly to make clear that “the European Union cannot be subjected to any kind of neo-colonial behaviour”.

“The EU is not a slave of the United States of America,” Juncker said, adding that while the US president is aware of this, “he doesn’t take this into account, at least not publicly”.

Commenting on Trump’s more than one-hour speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Juncker said it was “less aggressive” than he had expected, but still “not reassuring”. Although the US president ruled out a military attack on Greenland, he reaffirmed his desire to take control of the territory through negotiations, referring to it as a “giant piece of ice”.

Now an adviser to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Juncker warned that such threats could have serious consequences for the transatlantic relationship. “If a NATO ally attacks or threatens another NATO ally, this inaugurates a process at the end of which we could witness a breakdown of NATO,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is on his way to Davos to hold talks with President Trump.

The two leaders are set to meet in the Alps on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) ahead of planned visits to Moscow by White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both discussions will center on President Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine.

Good morning and welcome to Euronews’ live updates from Davos and Brussels on the latest developments in Greenland.

As the sun rises over Davos, Switzerland, Euronews takes a look at what to watch today at the World Economic Forum:

• 09:00 – Conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog
• 09:30 – Speech by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• 12:30 – Conversation with Finnish President Alexander Stubb

In Brussels, European heads of state and government will gather for a special European Council, where Greenland is expected to be high on the agenda. Leaders will arrive from 17:30, with discussions due to begin at 19:00.

We will keep you updated throughout the day with the latest statements, announcements and reactions from the Davos World Economic Forum and beyond.