WEF seeks geopolitical cooperation

New Delhi/Davos: The world appears to be at crossroads with the possibility of greater geopolitical competition or greater global cooperation ahead in 2022, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) President Borge Brende said on Tuesday.

With the global leaders discussing 'the state of the world' at the WEF's online Davos Agenda summit, Brende said the past two years have shown what each of the two possibilities can bring. He said the record speed at which safe and effective vaccines were developed during the first year of the pandemic was made possible by coordinated efforts among governments, businesses and research institutions.

He referred to the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine being made up of 280 components from 19 different countries to emphasise his point. However, he pointed out that the achievement of collaborative innovation stands in relief against the inequitable and just 8 per cent of the eligible population in Africa being fully inoculated.

The WEF president said that despite geopolitical frictions, actors can still work in common purpose on specific, shared priorities. "And there are signs that this is happening," he added. "The common thread over the course of the pandemic has been that when leaders have coordinated efforts, progress followed. But when companies or countries pursued self-interest, global challenges mounted," he said.