Donald Trump’s go back to the White Area has to this point observed the U.S. president trip to overseas lands to signal billion-dollar offers, attend lavish royal welcomes and try to forge elusive peace agreements amid conflicts and crises. And on Sept. 17, 2025, he’s anticipated to discuss with the UK for a 2d state discuss with with King Charles III hosted at Windsor Fort.
In the meantime, leaders from internationally have visited the White Area all over Trump’s 2d time period. Examples come with everybody from El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who visited in April, to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who got here to Washington in February. And all eyes have been at the fresh summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After all, this represents just a fraction of the full miles clocked by way of high ministers, presidents and different heads of state and govt. However what are we able to be told from the trip traits of worldwide leaders?
With our colleagues on the College of Denver’s Pardee Institute for Global Futures, now we have meticulously cataloged each and every identified, noticed out of the country travel taken by way of the main heads of presidency and state from greater than 200 international locations from 1990 via 2024. Our Nation and Group Chief Shuttle dataset is a first-of-its-kind, publicly to be had dataset that permits us to entirely read about the reasons, penalties and patterns of high-level chief international relations.
Even a cursory glance illustrates how a lot the sector has modified in fresh many years. One of the vital first journeys within the COLT dataset is former Czechoslovakian High Minister Marian Calfa’s discuss with to the German Democratic Republic at the day after New 12 months’s Day 1990. Neither nation exists any further. One of the vital newer journeys in COLT is a November 2024 discuss with to Azerbaijan by way of the president of Montenegro, neither of which nation existed as an unbiased entity till 1991 and 2006, respectively.
Listed here are a couple of broader classes now we have discovered to this point from the greater than 100,000 journeys taken by way of international leaders up to now 35 years.
Who and the place unearths geopolitical traits
The trip patterns of leaders are an impressive indicator in their priorities and perceived significance of different countries. Many leaders have made some extent to get face time within the White Area in the USA, as an example, whilst a ways fewer have made some extent of visiting the Blue Area in South Korea.
One strategy to assess a rustic’s perceived energy is in the course of the stability of leader-level overseas trip to and from the rustic.
Once more, take the U.S. as an example. Our knowledge tracks over 500 out of the country journeys by way of U.S. presidents since 1990, contrasted with greater than 6,000 visits by way of overseas leaders to the USA. Those inbound visits to the U.S. span the spectrum from main occasions equivalent to the yearly United Countries Basic Meeting in New York and formal state dinners to a large number of lower-profile conferences the place a overseas head of presidency or state would possibly not even safe an target market with the U.S. president.
Crucially, the president’s assembly agenda and alternatives light up which world problems – equivalent to Russia’s battle in Ukraine – are paramount and which international locations and leaders dangle better strategic importance.
To know international energy dynamics extra widely, believe the stark distinction in internet visits for the U.S. and Canada. The U.S., with 260 gained visits as opposed to most effective seven taken by way of its chief, President Joe Biden, in 2024, demonstrates a excessive imbalance. By contrast, Canada reveals a a lot more balanced diplomatic change. In 2024, the Canadian high minister, High Minister Justin Trudeau, made 13 overseas journeys – every nation visited counted as a singular travel – whilst the rustic gained most effective 12 visits from different heads of presidency or state. This “net visit” metric gives a compelling strategy to perceive a rustic’s relative significance at the international level.
Whilst the facility differential between the U.S. and Canada could also be glaring, we will be able to behavior an identical comparisons for international locations around the globe.
At the different finish of the spectrum from the U.S. is Somalia. Its president has traveled in a foreign country 8 occasions greater than all different international locations have visited Somalia between 1990 and 2024 – 334 journeys in a foreign country as opposed to 40 visits gained. Throughout that very same period of time, neighboring Kenya has kind of damaged even, with 501 presidential journeys in a foreign country and 557 best chief visits gained.
Heads of state are more and more at the transfer
International leaders also are touring considerably greater than they did 35 years in the past. Within the Nineteen Nineties, a median of one,508 out of the country journeys by way of heads of presidency or state befell yearly. Since 2010, this reasonable has surged to roughly 2,734 journeys in keeping with 12 months.
This build up in international chief trip is accompanied by way of notable shifts in regional illustration. African leaders, as an example, now account for a bigger share of overall out of the country journeys. From 1990 to 1994, they composed about 20% of all international chief trip; this determine rose to kind of 30% between 2020-2024. This has coincided with Africa’s expanding financial integration and continental cooperation in the course of the African Union.
Conversely, the relative percentage of world trip by way of Latin American leaders has declined. Their share of worldwide chief trip fell from round 15% in 1990-1994 to about 10% for the reason that onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Like any others, Latin American leaders of nowadays on reasonable trip greater than they as soon as did, however different leaders from different areas are touring much more.
Asian leaders display a an identical relative lower, losing from kind of 25% of all international chief journeys in 1990-1994 to only over 17% from 2020-2024. This pattern for Asian leaders coincides with the preferred narratives surrounding the “Asian century,” suggesting that for chief trip, the continent’s ascendance might basically follow simply to China. As one indication of this truth, China gained 78 visits from different international locations’ best leaders from 1990-2000, while that determine from 2010-2020 used to be 133, a bunch that will had been upper had international trip no longer halted all over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maximum leaders persist with their neighborhoods
A pivotal feature of modern international chief trip is its predominantly intraregional nature. Leaders overwhelmingly prioritize visits to international locations inside of their very own geographic spaces: African leaders to different portions of Africa, Eu leaders to international locations in Europe, and so forth.
This phenomenon suits a basic pattern towards multipolarity, the place the geopolitical panorama is now not outlined only by way of the bipolar competition that characterised the Chilly Struggle.
Whilst this concentrated regional international relations would possibly not constantly garner front-page headlines, particularly in U.S. media shops, this is a the most important area for reaching important geopolitical good points equivalent to enhanced business and funding.
The CARICOM Summit, held in Barbados in February 2025, serves as a working example. Throughout the summit, Caribbean heads of presidency and state convened to deal with a spread of shared regional problems, enhance inside business agreements, finalize cooperation accords and planned on broader geopolitical issues, underscoring the important significance of those intraregional diplomatic efforts.
Some leaders simply wish to have a laugh
Past the strategic imperatives of statecraft, the trip patterns of worldwide leaders infrequently divulge a vital non-public size. As an example, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa made 8 journeys to the U.S. in 2024, with 4 – together with circle of relatives holidays – explicitly designated as non-public.
Every other illustrative case is that of the previous Belize High Minister Dean Barrow, who steadily traveled to the U.S. for private engagements, starting from essential clinical remedies to hobbies, equivalent to prioritizing unique eating places just like the now-closed, as soon as celebrity-frequented Madeo in Los Angeles.
Not too long ago, Trump controlled to combine industry and delight, “meeting the U.K. and Scottish heads of government in between rounds of golf,” because the BBC reported.
Hitting the hyperlinks: Donald Trump performs a spherical of golfing whilst in Scotland in July 2025.
Jane Barlow/PA Pictures by means of Getty Pictures
The place leaders move tells us the place we’re headed
So, what are we able to make of Trump’s fresh trip plans?
On the subject of U.S. presidents, his summer time itinerary used to be, generally, most commonly extra of the similar than a ruin with the previous blending of geopolitics and the occasional facet of private pursuits.
This isn’t to mention that not anything has modified, on the other hand. Have been it no longer for the loss of life of Pope Francis, the primary out of the country journeys by way of Trump in his first and 2d phrases in place of work would had been to Saudi Arabia. This can be a sign that the Gulf area performs a broader position in Trump’s geopolitical calculations than it did for previous U.S. presidents. It might also merely be some other idiosyncrasy of Trump.
Regardless of the case, our COLT dataset gives large viewpoint of the extremely advanced nature of worldwide international relations. From high-stakes authentic visits to private journeys, figuring out the place leaders move, and why, is the most important to greedy the evolving panorama of world international relations.
