Hot Diplomatic Girl Summer

The tell-tale signs of a northern summer have begun: those ‘out of office’ replies are ghosting like your college group-project partner, thermometers are melting like cheap gelato, and heads of state are racking up more miles than a 22-year-old on Contiki.

So shall we take a squiz at all these presidential itineraries? Let’s start with… 

1. 🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron: the perpetual motion machine

Looking for a summer adventure? Take notes from France’s Macron, who just became the first major Western leader to visit Damascus since Al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime.

Why? Sure, they signed MOUs on everything from healthcare to transport, but Macron also wants to re-establish French influence, secure reconstruction contracts, and push for a moderate transition that prevents further chaos spilling into Europe.

Meanwhile, al-Sharaa gets immediate legitimacy at home and abroad, more balance against Turkish, Qatari, and Russian influence, and hopes of more European investment.

We say ‘hopes’ because the optics of Macron strolling Damascus in a new united Syria were overshadowed by two bombs near his hotel — nobody’s claimed responsibility yet.

Returning home, Macron barely had time to buff his aviators before hosting ~25 leaders from Europe’s Coalition of the Willing, though willing to do what is still TBC — Macron’s pledge to send Ukraine more Rafales and arms licensing was overshadowed by word Europe just bought record amounts of LNG from the invaders’ own flagship Yamal plant!

But Macron isn’t the only world leader unveiling his summer travel bod. Look at…

2. 🇮🇳 Narendra Modi: the diaspora darling 

Everyone has that friend from college who’s inexplicably on constant vacation, and for world leaders that friend is India’s Narendra Modi — the guy has now snapped selfies in 11 countries across three continents in two-ish months!

Why the sudden wanderlust? Maybe it’s a three-quarter-life crisis. Maybe it’s his new EU and New Zealand trade deals. Maybe it’s Maybelline. But we’d also add…

a) Fuel crisis gripes aside, huge crowds of Indian expats chanting “Modi Modi” play well back home, appeal to his aspirational middle class, and reinforce his statesman image.

b) We also wonder if his Indonesia-Australia-NZ leg is a response to the US dropping ‘Indo’ from its US Pacific Command name (implying India’s waning clout), while rival Pakistan gets more US love as an active mediator.

Catch flights, not feelings, right? Then let’s catch up with…

3. 🇮🇶 Ali al-Zaidi: the survivor on a sales trip

Iraq’s new PM has touched down in the US ahead of an expected Trump summit this week, with a packed agenda that really revolves around oil: 90% of Iraq’s oil traditionally exits via Hormuz, but the Iran war has forced Iraq to slash output while it finds a new exit.

Enter the Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline connecting northern Iraq’s oilfields to Syria’s Mediterranean coast, then out to those sweet sweet buyers abroad. The pipe has been around since the 50s, but Saddam Hussein closed it in the 80s after Syria sided with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq then did it serious damage.

Ali’s hope now? He needs foreign cash and Syrian stability to revive this pipeline, and he sees the US as key to both. Ditto, Trump will see value in any Hormuz bypass right now, let alone one already flirting with US investors like TI Capital.

Okay now we’re schvitzing in this Iraqi desert, so let’s cool off way up north with…

4. 🇨🇳 Wang Yi: the Nordic fixer

Trouble in your relationship? Nothing a steamy sauna can’t fix. At least, that’s the strategy China’s top envoy Wang Yi hoped might work on his four-country trip around the Nordics.

Why? His lightning six-day tour through Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway was part charm offensive, part “near-Arctic state” cosplay, and part just shaping EU-China ties from a different (cardinal) direction: with Brussels threatening tariff walls to close a yawning trade deficit, China’s export-reliant economy faces more pressure.

So Wang did what Wang does: divide and conquer. He was hoping a bit of face-time in Europe’s wealthy, tech-heavy Nordic capitals might secure China’s position in their green-tech supply chains, and blunt their enthusiasm for any further EU protectionism.

No doubt the Nordics in turn asked why Beijing is helping Russian aggression on their doorstep, though perhaps Wang asked why the US was threatening to yoink Greenland?

Anyway, safe travels, everyone. And with so many politicians in the air, be sure to pack those noise-cancelling headphones.