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| Pompeo told journalists he was staying so long in Switzerland as he is a "big cheese and chocolate fan" (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI) |
Bern (Switzerland) (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will take part Saturday in a secretive meeting in Switzerland of global power brokers discreetly discussing issues like Brexit and the future of capitalism.
The State Department confirmed Saturday that
Pompeo, who is on a four-nation tour of Europe, would take part in the four-day
Bilderberg meeting, which kicked off on Thursday in the picturesque Swiss town
of Montreux.
His participation had not been previously
mentioned in the official agenda and he did not figure on the list of some 130
elites from 23 countries participating in the event.
Already on the list is US President Donald
Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, who might use the forum to try to
drum up support for his yet to be unveiled Middle East peace plan.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, NATO chief Jens
Stoltenberg and elder statesman Henry Kissinger also figure on the list of
participants, as do Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, French Finance Minister
Bruno Le Maire and German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen.
The group, which has met every year since 1954
and was created as a forum for fostering dialogue between Europe and North
America, is this year discussing a range of topics such as climate change, the
future of capitalism, the ethics of Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia and
Brexit, the organisers said.
The Trump administration has taken strong and
controversial stances on a number of the topics on the agenda, including
swelling tensions with Beijing, complex relations with Moscow and a more than
sceptical attitude to calls to fight climate change.
Pompeo himself recently hailed that climate change was helping open new sea routes in the usually frozen Arctic.
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The luxury
hotel where the talks are taking place has placed high bushes all around
its
perimeters to keep the press at bay (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI)
|
Pompeo himself recently hailed that climate change was helping open new sea routes in the usually frozen Arctic.
The luxury hotel where the talks are taking
place has placed high bushes all around its perimeters to keep the press at
bay.
'Cheese and chocolate fan'
The participants are meanwhile held to the
so-called Chatham House Rule, meaning that participants are free to use the
information received, but may not reveal the identity nor the affiliation of
the speaker.
The secretive nature of the group has given
birth to conspiracy theories. Some have warned, for example, that Bilderberg is
a group of rich and powerful kingmakers seeking to impose a one world
government.
Pompeo arrived in Switzerland on Friday on the
second leg of his European tour, following a stop in Berlin and before
travelling on to The Hague and London.
On Saturday morning, he and his wife Susan had
a guided tour of Bern's Old Town, and on Sunday he is due to meet with his
Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis.
Asked why he chose to stay for so long in
Switzerland -- from Friday afternoon through Monday morning, Pompeo told a
group of journalists travelling with him that he is a "big cheese and
chocolate fan".
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