Speeches from the leaders of Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago are the first events confirmed for this year’s World Leaders Forum.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, will speak on Sept. 21, and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa will speak on Sept. 23, officials announced Monday. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, the president of the Islamic Development Bank Group, will speak about the international financial crisis on Sept. 26.
Registration for those three events opens at 9 a.m.
The World Leaders Forum, which began in 2003, typically includes a dozen speeches from presidents and prime ministers, along with panel discussions on regional topics.
Last year, the forum attracted a large crowd of protestors before Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia, spoke. In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s invitation and speech—in which he declared that there were no homosexuals in Iran—incited student protests and a media firestorm.
