Geopolitical Calendar

Date	Event	Location
21-26 Apr 2025	World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings	Global
Stakeholders and decision-makers will discuss critical issues including the inflation outlook, growth trends and wider geopolitical developments. Global trade tensions will likely overshadow negotiations. G20 finance ministers and central bankers will meet alongside the event.
24-25 Apr 2025	The International Summit on the Future of Energy Security	Global
UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol will co-host the event and feature among the keynote speakers.
28 Apr 2025	General election	Canada
Prime Minister Mark Carney on 23 March called a snap election. Carney’s Liberal Party is likely to win as the opposition Conservative Party struggles to adapt its message to the domestic and geopolitical environments.
1 May 2025	May Day	Global
May Day is typically celebrated by socialist and communist political movements and is a global day of action for anti-capitalist, anarchist and other left-wing activists. May Day protests in parts of Europe and North America involve vandalism, property damage and clashes with law enforcement and right-wing counter-demonstrators.
3 May 2025	Federal election	Australia
The ruling Labor Party is likely to lose its slim majority in the lower house but is likely to form a minority government.
3 May 2025	General election	Singapore
The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) is expected to win – it has won every election since independence in 1959.
4 May 2025	Presidential elections	Romania
Romania in December 2024 annulled the presidential result citing Russian election interference. The rescheduled election is unlikely to fundamentally change the political landscape. While the head of the nationalist Alliance for Romanian Unity party (AUR) George Simion is the frontrunner, it will remain closely contested.
11 May 2025	Parliamentary elections	Albania
The Socialist Party is likely to hold on to power as the opposition remains divided. For the first time, Albanian citizens living abroad will be able to participate through electronic voting or mail-in ballots following recent electoral reforms.
12 May 2025	General election	Philippines
All 318 seats in the House of Representatives (lower house) and 12 of the 24 seats in the Senate (upper house) will be contested. Local elections will also be held for the executive and legislative branches.
15 May 2025	Nakba Day	Israel, Palestinian Territories
Palestinians commemorate Nakba (“catastrophe”) – a term they use to refer to when more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled during the creation of Israel. The Middle East conflicts will drive higher turnouts at related protests globally.
16 May 2025	European Political Community Summit	Europe
The summit will be held in Albania. A deterioration of relations between the US and the EU will likely dominate discussions.
19-27 May 2025	78th World Health Assembly	Global
The 78th World Health Assembly will be held in Geneva (Switzerland). The 2025 assembly is the new deadline for negotiations on a global Pandemic Agreement. Negotiations on a global Pandemic Accord, underway since 2021, are due to conclude at the summit – which has been delayed multiple times.
18 May 2025	Presidential election	Poland
Incumbent Andrzej Duda is ineligible for re-election. The election is likely to go to a second-round run-off on 1 June, and Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the candidate for the governing coalition, is the likely winner. Trzaskowski’s election would enable the coalition to pursue its agenda, while a victory by the opposition candidate would disrupt the government’s agenda significantly.
18 May 2025	Legislative election	Portugal
A snap legislative election will see all 230 seats contested. The election result is likely to be close. Neither the Socialist Party (PS) nor Prime Minister Luis Montenegro’s conservative Democratic Alliance (AD) is likely to be able to form an outright majority.
25 May 2025	Legislative election	Suriname
Suriname will hold its first legislative election under a new proportional representation system.
30 May-1 June 2025	IISS Shangri-La Dialogue	Global
Stakeholders in defence, security and geopolitics will discuss critical Indo-Pacific security challenges in Singapore.
June 2025	UN Security Council election	Global
The UN General Assembly will elect five non-permanent seats for two-year terms beginning in 2026. These include two seats from Africa (DRC and Liberia), one from Asia (Bahrain), one from Latin America, and one from Eastern Europe (Latvia or Montenegro).
5 Jun 2025	Legislative elections	Burundi
During the elections, 100 seats will be directly contested for the National Assembly (legislature) and a further between 18 and 23 co-opted members who are not directly elected.
9-13 June 2025	2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3)	Global
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) will be the first since the 2022 conference in Lisbon (Portugal). It will also be the first conference since the historic Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, also known as the High Seas Treaty.
14 June-13 July 2025	FIFA Club World Cup 2025	Global
The US hosts the 21st FIFA Club World Cup tournament, which will see 32 teams take part for the first time in an expanded format.
15-17 June 2025	G7 Leaders’ Summit	Global
Canada will host the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis (Alberta). This year’s summit will welcome a number of new leaders, not least host Canada’s own.
23-27 June 2025	The Internet Governance Forum	Global
The UN meeting will be held in Lillestrom (Norway) and it will discuss critical issues related to internet policy, including child protection and digital policies.
24-25 Jun 2025	North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit	Global
The Netherlands for the first time will host the NATO Summit. It will take place in The Hague.
6-7 July 2025	BRICS+ Summit	Global
Brazil will host the BRICS Summit in 2025. The summit will welcome its five newest members and nine partner countries for the second time and will likely look into further expanding the bloc.
8-11 July 2025	AI for Good Global Summit	Global
The UN-organised summit will discuss the security impacts of evolving AI systems. Discussions are likely to build on the outcomes delivered at February’s AI Action Summit, such as the planned global platform for AI capacity building.
17 Aug 2025	General elections	Bolivia
Voters will elect the President, Vice President, and members of the legislative chambers. The elections are shaped by significant internal divisions within the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, as current President Luis Arce and former president Evo Morales, who has been barred from running, vie for influence.
September 2025	First crewed mission to the Moon since 1972	Global
Artemis II, the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972 and second mission of the Artemis Program, is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025.
8 Sep 2025	Parliamentary elections	Norway
Norway’s polls will decide the composition of the 169-seat parliament (Storting).
9-23 Sep 2025	UN General Assembly	Global
The event will bring together global leaders, stakeholders, policymakers and experts to discuss a plethora of critical issues.
16 Sep 2025	General elections	Malawi
Incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party will seek re-election against former president Peter Mutharika of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. The 193 members of the National Assembly will also be elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies.
7 Oct 2025	Anniversary of the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict	Global
The anniversary will likely prompt an uptick in extremist propaganda globally, and increased intent to mount attacks from Islamist extremists, including in the Middle East, North Africa and Western countries.
13-18 Oct 2025	World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meeting	Global
Experts, politicians and financial stakeholders will gather in Washinton DC (US) to discuss critically relevant issues to the global economy.
10-20 Oct 2025	UN Climate Change Conference (COP30)	Global
Brazil will host the conference in the hope of making significant progress in climate agreements.
22-23 Oct 2025	G20 Leaders’ Summit	Global
South Africa will host global leaders of the G20 in Johannesburg.
30 Nov 2025	General election	Honduras
The president, members of the National Congress, and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament will be elected.