After the suspension of the 2020 and 2021 meetings due to the pandemic, the Bilderberg Club has recovered its annual appointment. It has done so in a select hotel in Washington where the 120 leaders from North America and Europe invited to the 68th edition of what can be considered the most elite forum in the entire world locked themselves up -literally- between June 2 and 5, rivaling with Davos although with differences.
On this occasion, Spain has been represented by three people: José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Pablo Casado, former president of the Popular Party, who received the invitation when he was still in office and it was kept; and Carlos Núñez, executive president of the Prisa group.
The regulations of the organizers determine that the meeting is ‘off the record’. Nothing that is said there can be made public. Not even who have taken the floor to address the rest. Bilderberg does not write conclusions or make public recommendations either, but we have been able to find out the identity of the participants and the issues addressed, a total of fourteen. ABC has been able to learn some details, such as that the Biden Administration has taken this ‘meeting’ very seriously, and that both the war in Ukraine and concern about international trade have been two of the great issues of this edition.
Logically, Russia’s attack on Ukraine was the star of talks and huddles. In fact, among this year’s guests was kyiv’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarowa. In addition, both countries were “key issues”, ie Russia and Ukraine were two of the fourteen issues that were addressed.
If we add to this fact that another of the topics of discussion was the “challenges of NATO”, we could say that Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine was present in triplicate. According to sources consulted by ABC, the positions of the 120 leaders of industry, finance, academia, work and the media corroborated that in recent years there has been a change in the world axis: it has turned from Asia -Pacific to Europe-Atlantic. One of the factors has been the surprising strengthening of NATO, the Atlantic Alliance, forced by the war on European soil.
Regarding Ukraine, Russia and NATO, there were more than qualified voices, starting with Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, or Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland, a country threatened by Russia and a candidate to join the defensive union. Also William Burns, director of the CIA, the US foreign intelligence agency, which also provided a former director, the decorated General David Petraeus. In fact, when it comes to secret services, there was an extraordinary representation, since we must add Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the Joe Biden government, the director of the French foreign intelligence service (DGSE), Bernard Émié, and also to Jeremy Fleming, head of the Communications Intelligence service of the Government of the United Kingdom.
With regard to Spain on the change of the Pacific-Atlantic axis, Brexit has led our country to win integers as the gateway to America in Europe. In addition, it should be noted that the Bilderberg Club was founded in 1954 to promote dialogue between North America and Europe, and that all the participants come from the old continent, the United States and Canada.
Special attention was paid by the attendees to the free trade agreements, where some criticism of the role of France was heard. It could have been dealt with in the chapter “Trade and deglobalisation”. In economic matters, the “Interruption of the Global Financial System”, the “Continuity of the Government and the economy” and the “Technological competition between China and the United States” were also addressed. On the other hand, the Asian giant had its own chapter.
Geopolitics occupied two key issues: the “Geopolitical Realignments” and the “Indo-Pacific Realignment.” On the other hand, there was talk of the “Fragmentation of democratic societies” and “Energy Security and Sustainability”. Among the attendees were the top executives of two oil companies of the magnitude of Shell and BP, in addition to the CEO of Enel, the Italian electricity company that took over Endesa in 2007.
All the issues discussed are of the utmost importance and topicality, such as “Disinformation”, where Yann LeCun, vice president of Facebook, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO and former president of Google, surely had a lot to say. Also large media editors, such as the German Mathias Döpfner, from Axel Springer, the chief editor of ‘The Economist’, Zanny Minton Beddoes, or the Spanish Carlos Núñez, president of the Prisa group. Another big current issue was “Post-pandemic health”, with the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer in the room.
The regulars did not miss the appointment, including King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, as it was his grandfather, Prince Bernard, who founded the club at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek almost 70 years ago. Also former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The meetings are organized by the Bilderberg Meetings Foundation, which is governed by a steering committee where we find another Spanish presence, that of Ana Patricia Botín, president of Banco Santander.
