VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSW #0035/01 0171641
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171641Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4809
INFO RUEAUSA/DEPT OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMCSUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAFCC/FCC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2802

UNCLAS BERN 000035 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/AGS (PLEASE PASS TO USTR) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ETRD SENV ENRG EAID PGOV SZ
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER:  THE 2008 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL 
MEETING IN DAVOS, SWITZERLAND (JAN 23-27) 
 
----------------------------------- 
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶1. (U) The Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) is an 
independent international organization, with a 
self-proclaimed commitment to "improving the state of the 
world."  It can be thought of as a large think tank with 
global mobility.  The WEF's aim is to be a leader in 
identifying strategic issues and providing a platform for 
decision-makers -- from government, business, and the media 
-- to effect change.  WEF meetings are funded by membership 
fees from about a thousand global companies. 
 
¶2. (U) The annual meeting in Davos is the WEF's signature 
event, and the largest event of its kind.  It offers a unique 
opportunity for USG officials to convey their messages and to 
hear what other leaders from around the world are thinking. 
The exclusive invitation list includes the leaders of member 
companies, as well as influential leaders from governments, 
multilateral organizations, academia, media, and NGOs.  The 
program for the WEF can be compared to an annual professional 
meeting, with panels, lectures, speeches, and theme dinners. 
Participants must choose beforehand which program elements 
they wish to attend.  The theme for this year's Annual 
Meeting (January 23-27) is "the Power of Collaborative 
Innovation." 
 
¶3. (U) WEF organizers again are limiting the number of 
invitees this year to 2,000, down from a high of 3,000 two 
years ago, in order to regain its original mission as a 
small, informal gathering.  Even at this size, however, the 
WEF Annual Meeting in Davos remains the world's largest 
private gathering of global leaders.  Members of the Swiss 
government participate in WEF meetings, but do not direct the 
agenda.  Swiss security services are deployed to protect the 
event, however.  Security within the Davos Congress Center 
and select hotels restricts entry to invited WEF guests only, 
with very limited exceptions for security details.  Lodging 
for non-invitees is scarce and very expensive. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The atmosphere of Davos makes the WEF a unique event 
and offers USG officials numerous opportunities to advance 
U.S. foreign policy objectives.  Likely attendees to the 2007 
WEF include dozens of foreign senior leaders, including 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UK Prime Minister Gordon 
Brown, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, and Ukrainian 
Prime Minister Viktor Yushenko.  Tony Blair, Henry Kissinger, 
James Dimon, K.V. Kamath, David J. O'Reilly, and Wang 
Jianzhou are co-chairing this year's meeting.  In addition to 
Secretary Rice, expected USG Cabinet attendees to this year's 
 
SIPDIS 
WEF are Energy Secretary Bodman, Education Secretary 
Spellings, United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab, 
and DHS Secretary Chertoff.  Likely Congressional attendees 
include five Senators and three U.S. Representatives. 
 
------------------------------ 
U.S.-SWISS BILATERAL RELATIONS 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Switzerland is neither a member of the European 
Union, nor NATO -- a unique status among major Western 
European nations.  Switzerland's prominent banking sector, 
advanced technological sector, diplomatic good offices, 
humanitarian tradition, and status as Protecting Power for 
the United States in Tehran and Havana make healthy 
U.S.-Swiss bilateral relations important.  The bilateral 
relationship has been fundamentally strong, but was strained 
during the past ten years, first due to the Holocaust Assets 
issue, and then by Swiss objections to USG policies vis-a-via 
Iraq and Guantanamo Detainees.  Recognizing that a drift in 
bilateral ties was not in Switzerland's own interest, the 
Swiss Federal Council (Cabinet) decided in May 2005 to 
enhance cooperation in the political, counter-terrorism/law 
enforcement, and trade spheres.  These efforts resulted in 
the signing of three agreements in 2006:  The Framework 
Agreement on Enhanced Political Cooperation; the Operative 
Working Agreement on Counterterrorism Cooperation; and the 
Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Political Cooperation:  The U.S. and Swiss 
governments pursue cooperation in areas of key mutual 
 
interest, in the Balkans, the Broader Middle East and North 
Africa (BMENA), Sudan, South and Central Asia, and Latin 
America.  Themes include terrorist finance, counterterrorism, 
human rights, humanitarian disaster relief, Muslim 
integration, and UN reform.  The Swiss have deployed 200 
soldiers to Kosovo, and about 20 to Bosnia.  The Swiss 
public's adherence to traditional neutrality, however, has 
slowed government efforts to double Switzerland's 
peacekeeping strength.  In November, the Swiss Defense 
Minister announced plans for Switzerland to withdraw its 
contribution (two staff officers) from ISAF, expressing 
concerns whether the mission was still coverd by the limits 
of the Swiss military's peacekeeping mandate. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Counter-terrorism and Law Enforcement:  Law 
Enforcement cooperation remains nascent, as Swiss legal 
restrictions and practice limit the information they share to 
that with a specific U.S. nexus.  An upgraded Operative 
Working Agreement, which came into force in December 2007, 
should allow joint investigations under limited conditions. 
On export controls, the Swiss are signatories to all relevant 
multilateral regimes.  They approach export control and 
non-proliferation in earnest, but have relatively few 
resources dedicated towards intelligence and enforcement. 
Expanding the level of cooperation in these areas are among 
the Embassy's primary goals. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Trade and Investment:  Switzerland has the 16th 
largest economy in the world, is the 12th largest aid donor, 
the 4th largest financial center, and a major source of 
direct investment in the United States.  The United States is 
Switzerland's second largest trading partner.  Swiss economic 
officials initially approached the USG about pursuing a free 
trade agreement in 2005.  Though USTR and the Embassy 
encouraged this movement, the Swiss Federal Council as a 
whole later balked at commencing talks, not wanting to fully 
open Switzerland's highly protected agricultural sector. 
USTR subsequently proposed the creation of a Trade and 
Investment Cooperation Forum to resolve more modest trade 
disagreements.  The USG and Swiss governments also 
participate in a Joint Economic Commission (JEC) to review 
broad economic themes. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
POLITICAL SYSTEM:  HOW THE SWISS MAKE DECISIONS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Switzerland boasts one of the world's most 
federalized political systems in which considerable authority 
still rests with individual communities and the 26 cantons 
(states).  The Swiss constitution of 1848 was based on the 
American Constitution, with a part-time bicameral legislature 
and only limited competencies assigned to the central 
government.  The seven-member Federal Council (Cabinet) is 
the executive authority.  The presidency rotates among the 
federal councilors for one-year terms.  All four major 
parties -- ranging from left-wing Social Democrats to the 
right-populist Swiss Peoples Party -- have at least one seat 
on the Federal Council, meaning that decisions are 
necessarily by consensus.  Government decisions can be 
challenged by popular referendum.  The dispersal of power 
throughout the political system has served as both a 
guarantor of personal liberty and a brake on political 
change, for good or ill. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Social Democrat Micheline Calmy-Rey, who has been 
Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2003, is very pro-EU, and 
often has been critical of the United States.  However, she 
supported Swiss participation in ISAF, advocates an overall 
greater Swiss peacekeeping presence abroad, and is closely 
aligned with the USG views on Kosovo.  Pascal Couchepin, from 
the centrist Liberal Party, was elected on December 12 to 
serve as Swiss Federal President in 2008, succeeding 
Calmy-Rey in this position.  In addition to being the 
President, Couchepin concurrently serves at Interior 
Minister.  He has been on the Federal Council since 1998, and 
is a former Economic Minister who helped to launch the Doha 
Round. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Justice/Police Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf 
replaced former Justice/Police Minister Christoph Blocher on 
January 1, following Widmer-Schlumpf's election to the 
 
Federal Council on December 12.  Both Blocher and 
Widmer-Schlumpf are from the Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), but 
Blocher was the SVP's designated candidate for the Federal 
Council position.  In a surprising turn of events that shook 
up the Swiss political system, Widmer-Schlumpf was elected by 
a majority of Swiss parliamentarians from other parties, a 
move that Blocher and his supporter argued was a slap to the 
Swiss political tradition of "collegiality".  The SVP 
subsequently decided to go into parliamentary opposition, and 
Widmer-Schlumpf was excluded from the SVP caucus for 
accepting her election to the Federal Council. 
Defense/Homeland Security Minister Samuel Schmid also is from 
the SVP, but has had strained relations with the party. 
Schmid too was excluded from the SVP caucus when he opted to 
remain on the Federal Council following the SVP's decision to 
go into opposition.  It remains to be seen how the lack of 
SVP caucus support may impact Widmer-Schlumpf and Schmid in 
their work on the Federal Council. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Minister of Economic Affairs Doris Leuthard is from 
the centrist Christian Peoples Party, is generally 
pro-free-trade, and is the second newest member of the 
Federal Council (after Widmer-Schlumpf), having been elected 
in July 2006.  Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz, from the 
Liberal Party, is known for his low-key style.  Rounding out 
the Federal Council is the relatively moderate Social 
Democrat Moritz Leuenberger, who is in charge of the 
Environment, Transportation, Energy, and Communications 
portfolio.  Notwithstanding this division of 
responsibilities, major decisions within all portfolios are 
reached by the Federal Council in its entirety, a factor 
adding to Switzerland's distinct political personality. 
CONEWAY