While much on the agenda this week in Brussels for the summit of Europe’s 27 government leaders will be familiar, there is a historic power shift underway that could bring about significant change in 2022.   

With Germany’s 2022 presidency of the G7 beginning in January, the three political parties negotiating a new coalition in Berlin are expected to begin formal talks — sooner than expected — next week to try to take up the reins of power before the end of the year.

Perhaps the most important remaining meeting in international relations this year is neither the G20 summit or the COP 26 climate conference, but the newly announced encounter between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. 

Italy kicks off a big October of G20 leadership diplomacy with an Afghanistan-themed summit next week. But the main event will be in Rome on the last weekend of the month with a meeting focused on broader issues, especially the pandemic and November’s COP26 climate summit.

The UK-US-Australia security deal in September was a significant foreign policy setback in Asia-Pacific for Emmanuel Macron, but he will seek to get back on the front foot in a different continent on Friday when hehosts the first France-Africa summit of his presidency.

The climate change agenda has had a lower profile since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the next month may see a global diplomatic super-surge given that success at November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow remains in the balance.

As dozens of world leaders gather in New York for the annual UN meetings, the eyes of many will be focused instead about 350km south in Washington as Joe Biden prepares to host the leaders of the other “Quad”powers of India, Japan and Australia.

Just over a week before election day, the German postwar political landscape is in ferment, with a record number of voters uncertain who to vote for in what could be a pivotal ballot.