LONDON – According to an annual report on global risks from the World Economic Forum, the global coronavirus pandemic has increased rivalry between the US and China, increasing future instability in international diplomatic relations.
The report, which draws on the opinions of hundreds of executives and academics involved in the WEF, as well as risk management specialists, says the pandemic threatens to increase income and other inequalities within and between societies, increasing the risk of a further break in some societies is widening. states and in international relations.
Covid-19 “has entrenched state power and intensified rivalry between the United States and China,” the report says, forcing other powers to take sides.
“With some alliances weakening, diplomatic relations will become more unstable at points where tectonic plates of superpowers converge or retreat,” it says. This trend is compounded by the lack of face-to-face conversations that have damaged traditional diplomacy.
The report is usually published just before the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This year, due to the pandemic, the meeting has been postponed until May, when it will take place in Singapore. Next week, the forum will host a virtual meeting with addresses of leaders such as Xi Jinping from China and Narendra Modi from India.