World Economic Forum 2024

15 January - 18 January 2024

King Philippe & Queen Mathilde are in Davos, Switzerland to attend the 54th annual World Economic Forum. They are accompanied by PM Alexander De Croo, deputy PM Petra De Sutter and Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden. This year's theme is "Rebuilding trust".

15 January 2024

Arrival at Zurich airport.

16 January 2024

At the opening session the Royal Couple was seated between Prince Albert of Monaco and WEF's founders, Klaus & Hilde Schwab.

Next to Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic.

With Cindy McCain, Director of the World Food Programme.

Queen Mathilde attended the Opening Speech by Ursula von der Leyen.

Queen Mathilde at the “Facing a World without Antibiotics” session.

Meanwhile King Philippe had meetings with President Zelenski of Ukraine, Prince Emmanuel de Merode of the Virunga Natural Park in Congo and local representants of the Amazon Forest, President of Armenia Vahagn Chatsjatoerian.

At the Belgian Cocktail Reception "Clean Tech Innovation on the Road to Net Zero" King Philippe & Queen Mathilde met Bill Gates who invests in GlaxoSmithKline's Walloon Brabant vaccine activities through his foundation.

In the evening Philippe & Mathilde had dinner with the WEF's founders, Klaus and Hilde Schwab.

17 January 2024

At the Special Address by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

At the "Addressing the North-South Schism" session.

A Conversation with Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State.

King Philippe met John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, during a panel session.

Meeting with the social innovators of the Schwab Foundation, striving for a more equal and sustainable world.

In the afternoon Queen Mathilde hosted a talk on mental health among young people facing the challenges of social media and AI. Her company were Doctors Doraiswamy, Hickie, Hijabi and Ospina.

18 January 2024

King Philippe meeting with Sam Altman (OpenAI - ChatGPT), Philipp Sindler and Ruth Poret of Google, and with Peter Faernhead of African Parks, Feike Sijbesma of Philips and Rolly Van Rapperd of CVC Capital Partners to talk about bio diversity and nature protection.

Meeting with the President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and former EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso.