Special addresses by ten major leaders were the featured sessions on the three main days of the conference. In the order of running, the speakers were: [3]
Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney gave a speech at the forum on 20 January 2026. He began his speech by saying that there was a "rupture in the world order, the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints," but pledged that "other countries, particularly middle powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that embodies our values, like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states." [4]
Carney described the current international situation as "an era of great power rivarly," where the rules-based international order was fading. He referred to the Thucydides Trap, a concept in international relations suggesting that there exists a tendency towards global strife when a new emerging power threatens an existing great power's position, saying that many middle powers have a instinct to accomodate to try and avoid being caught up in that strife. He stated that this instinct was wrong. [4]
He then referred to Czech political dissident Václav Havel's 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless, that discussed the ability of totalitarian Leninist states to sustain themselves and how citizens under those regimes could build resistance. Carney stated that those states sustained themselves "not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false... The system's power comes not from its truth but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: when even one person stops performing." [4] Carney linked this to the current international situation, saying that Canada and other countries had willingly participated in a international order that they knew to be "partially false," overlooking the fact that the rules and institutions of this order were applied unevenly because they benefitted from its predictability and the protections that order gave them. Carney specifically referred to "American hegemony," saying that it had "helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes. So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer works." [4]
Carney then declared that the world was "in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," saying that a range of crises since the beginning of the 21st century had brought the downsides of the international order to the forefront and that the institutions that middle powers relied on (such as the conference of the parties, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations) were under direct threat from the great powers. [4] He stated that many middle powers had consequently begun a shift towards prioritising strategic autonomy, but warned that "a world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable... the question for middle powers, like Canada, is not whether to adapt to the new reality — we must. The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls or whether we can do something more ambitious." [4]
Carney then reaffirmed Canada's committment to international cooperation, to human rights, and to the values underlined in the Charter of the United Nations. He discussed several steps that his government was taking, including cutting taxes, removing interprovincial trade barriers, increased infrastructure investment and defence spending, and diversifying its international trade agreements. He also reaffirmed Canada's committment to NATO and to Greenland's right to self-determination. He stated that "to help solve global problems, we are pursuing variable geometry — in other words, different coalitions for different issues based on common values and interests." [4] Carney then stated that "middle powers must act together because if we're not at the table, we're on the menu," calling for middle powers to stop invoking the rules-based international order, to apply the same standards to allies and enemies, to build a new international order, and to reduce the leverage that great powers had over them. [4] Carney concluded by calling for "honesty about the world as it is," saying that "The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together. That is Canada's path. We choose it openly and confidently. And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us." [4]
Donald Trump
President of the United States Donald Trump addressed the forum on 21 January. Trump began his speech by describing the forum as "a who’s who," before saying that he had brought "truly phenomenal news from America." [5] He claimed that the US was "in the midst of the fastest and most dramatic economic turnaround in our country’s history... Just over one year ago, under the radical left Democrats, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world." [5] He continued by saying that the United States was "the economic engine on the planet... You all follow us down and you follow us up." [5]
Trump then said that he would describe how he had done this so that other world leaders could follow his example. [5] He stated that Western governments had followed a consensus on acheiving economic growth through government spending, mass immigration, and foreign imports, a consensus that was having the effect that "many parts of our world are being destroyed before our very eyes, and the leaders don’t even understand what’s happening. And the ones that do understand aren’t doing anything about it." [5] He then listed a wide range of measures his goverment was taking, including reducing the size of the civil service, cutting taxes domestically while imposing tariffs on imports, slashing government funding and regulations, making international trade agreements, ramping up domestic oil and gas production, building new nuclear power plants, and the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela. He repeatedly attacked Joe Biden and the European left, while also warning against pursuing environment-friendly policies, calling them "perhaps the greatest hoax in history." [5]
Trump subsequently stated that "we believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe as a civilization," pointing towards his own European ancestry, and repeated his claim that Europeans were "destroying themselves, these beautiful, beautiful places." [5] He then used the example of Greenland to illustrate his point, saying that only the United States could defend Greenland. He stated that World War II showed this, saying that Denmark needed the United States to save them from the German occupation and that "without us, right now you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps. After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?" [5] Trump then returned to the topic of the intervention in Venezuela to futher show that only the United States could defend Greenland, before saying that Greenland was part of North America and was therefore "our territory. It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America. And in fact, it’s been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere." [5] He continued by saying that "the United States is treated very unfairly by NATO," claiming that the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if the 2020 American presidential elections had not been "rigged." [5] He then returned to the topic of Greenland and pledged not to use force to takeover the island, saying that "all the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland." [5]
Trump continued his speech by stating that, under his administration, the American military had become even more powerful and was "bringing back battleships." [5] He then returned to the topic of Greenland, saying that the United States was asking for ownership because "you need the ownership to defend it." [5] He subsequently referred to his proposed Golden Dome missile defence system before referring negatively to Carney's speech, saying that "Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that Mark, the next time you make your statements." [5] Trump then returned to the topic of Ukraine, saying that it was "a bloodbath over there" and that both Putin and Zelenskyy wanted to reach a peace agreement. He added that his diplomacy on Ukraine was helping Europe, but that, following comments the American ambassador made about taking over Iceland, "until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy right last time. Very smart man said he’s our daddy. He’s running it. I was like running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being. But now what I’m asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection." [5]
Trump then briefly talked about American fighter jets, including the under-development Boeing F-47 and the United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, before returning to the topic of Greenland, saying that "we want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else. And we could have kept that piece of land and we didn’t sell. They have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember." [5] He subsequently repeated his claims about the performance of the American economy under his leadership, while attacking Biden's economic performance. He then discussed pharmaceutical prices in the United States and the disparity in prices between the US and Europe, saying that "basically America was subsidizing every nation in the world because presidents allowed them to get away with it." [5] Following that, he discussed the housing market in the United States, pledging that "America will not become a nation of renters" and that he would issue and executive order "banning large institutional investors from buying single family homes." [5] He then briefly discussed cryptocurrencies, pledging to make the United States "the crypto capital of the world," and then discussed Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, calling him "terrible" and accusing him of disloyalty. [5] After that, he discussed placing tariffs on Swiss watches, before talking again about the performance of the American economy under his administration, and then about Operation Metro Surge and the 2025–2026 domestic military deployments in the United States, saying that "ICE gets beat up by stupid people from leadership in Minnesota. We actually are helping Minnesota so much, but they don't appreciate it. Most places do." [5] He subsequently discussed Somalians, including both the 2020s Minnesota fraud scandals, representative Ilhan Omar, and piracy off the coast of Somalia, saying that Somalians "turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say these are low IQ people. How do they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?" [5]
Trump concluded his speech by saying that "many of you in this room are true pioneers... the future is unlimited. And to a large part, because of you. And we have to protect you, and we have to cherish you," adding that "the United States is back bigger, stronger, better than ever before." [5]
