MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – Week Ahead Apr 19-25

All timings subject to change.

Monday 19 April:

• European Union: Informal video conference of foreign ministers takes place, with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba included on the call. While the schedule officially includes topics including the situations in Georgia, Myanmar, Mozambique, and the Iran nuclear deal, the majority of focus is likely to be on the growing Russian military presence on Ukraine's eastern borders and what action the EU is willing to take with regard to any potential conflict.
• United States:Another slew of Senators and Representatives from both parties are due to meet with President Biden at 1315ET at the White House to discuss the administration's multi-trillion dollar infrastructure plan. Attendees include Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT), Angus King (I-ME), and John Hoeven (R-ND), and Representatives Kay Granger (R-TX), Carlos Giminez (R-FL) and Charlie Crist (D-FL). Granger is the ranking Republican on the House appropriations committees, while all the senators and Crist are former governors.
• Europe:Meeting of advisors from the so-called Normandy Format countries (France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine) due to hold talks with the aim of creating the possibility of a summit of national leaders to ease escalating tensions between Russian and Ukraine. Comes after in-person talks between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on 16 April, which were joined virtually by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• India:The capital city of New Delhi goes into a week-long COVID-19 lockdown following a major spike in new cases that saw the city record a new high of 24,462 additional infections on 18 April. Only government offices and essential businesses will be open for the next week, while authorities have called on migrant workers not to leave the city to return to their home villages.

MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – Week Ahead Apr 19-25.pdf