Lydia Misnik
The presidential elections in France, the meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, the referendum on the constitution in Belarus – 2022 promises to be rich in political events in the world. Gazeta.Ru tells about the most important and interesting elections and summits that are expected in the new year.
At the beginning of 2022, the main intrigue of the outgoing year should be resolved – negotiations on security guarantees will be held between Moscow and Washington. The first round, according to preliminary data, will take place in Geneva on January 10. The Russian delegation will be headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the American delegation by First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. The draft treaty with the United States and the agreement with NATO were published in December. In one of the points of the project, Moscow demands from the alliance to provide guarantees that exclude further NATO advance in the eastern direction, that is, in the direction of Ukraine.
Ultimately, these conversations will move to the level of heads of state: in early 2022, the presidents of Russia and the United States, Putin and Joe Biden, are expected to meet in person. This was reported by “Kommersant” with reference to sources familiar with the course of negotiations between Moscow and Washington. An extensive agenda is expected, including the implementation of the agreements reached at the Geneva summit last June. Biden, at the beginning of talks on a video link with Putin on December 7, himself expressed hope for a face-to-face meeting of the two heads of state. According to him, this could happen at the next G20 summit. True, the G20 summit itself will take place only towards the end of the year, in October. The Indonesian authorities, which have chaired the G-20 since December 2021, decided to hold it on the resort island of Bali in full-time format. As Indonesian President Wido-do noted, during its presidency, Indonesia intends to “demonstrate the successes achieved in controlling the pandemic, including in te-rms of health and economic recovery.” Jakarta expects that the G20 events will br-ing together thousands of delegates from participating countries and international institutions.
The next G7 summit will take place almost six months earlier – in 2022 it is scheduled for the period from 26 to 28 June. Leaders from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will gather at Ellmau Castle in German Bavaria. The G7 Summit was already held at this location in 2015.
A Russia-Africa summit is also scheduled for next year. It should take place on the African continent, but it cannot be ruled out that it will eventually be reduced to a virtual format. If the su-mmit is nevertheless held in person, then we can expect that Nairobi will receive the guests – at least, such an initiative was expressed by the Ambassador of Kenya to Russia Benson Ogutu. Like the first Russia-Africa summit, which took place in Sochi in October 2019, the upcoming event should bring together the leaders of all 54 African states. The World Economic Forum (WEF), which was scheduled to take place in Davos, Switzerland in January 2022, has been postponed indefinitely due to uncertainties surrounding the outbreak of the omicron strain. According to preliminary data, the EEF may take place in early summer.
Another important economic event – the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) – is scheduled for June 15-18, 2022. “We see a high level of interest of the international community in such platforms for dialogue: today a number of countries have expressed interest in the participation of their representative delegations in SPIEF-2022,” said Anton Kobya-kov, Advisor to the Presid-ent of the Russian Feder-ation, Executive Secretary of the SPIEF Organizing Committee. This year, guests will come to Russia not only for major events, but also privately. At the end of 2021, it became known about the intentions of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to visit Russia in early 2022. As the official representative of the Iranian government Ali Bahadori noted, during the visit Raisi is going to discuss issues of bilateral and trade and economic cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.
One of the most anticipated political events next year is the presidential elections in France, scheduled for April 10, 2022. President Emmanuel Macron has not yet officially announced his nomination, but few doubt that he will run for a second term. If centrist Macron comes forward, he will face several right-wing and far-right candidates. The conservative Republicans, which included former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, chose Valerie Pécresse, the head of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, as its candidate for the presidency. In November next year, the US will hold midterm elections to the US Congress. Mid-term elections traditionally take place in the middle of a presidential term. During this vote, the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, is fully re-elected, which is mainly responsible for passing new laws. In addition, 34 out of 100 senators will be elected in this election, who will serve in the US Congress for six years – from January 3, 2023 to January 3, 2029. Senators are divided into three groups, the terms of office of which are distributed in such a way that senators of one of the groups are elected every two years. Third-class senators were last elected in 2016 and will be elected again in 2022.
This election is important because it could turn out to be a lame duck – a Democratic president whose initiatives cannot pass through the Republican-controlled Congress.
Elections next year will also be held in Abkhazia: on March 12, the parliament of the republic will be elected. The term of office of the current sixth convocation of parliament expires next spring. The Abkhaz parliament has 35 deputies who are elected in single-mandate constituencies once every five years.
Parliamentary elections for next year are also scheduled in Libya.
This is part of the “road map” adopted at the Libya Political Dialogue Forum, supported by the UN. The Supreme Council of State (HCS) of Libya expects presidential and parliamentary elections in the country to take place in mid-2022. They were postponed as the HCV ruled out their holding on January 24 of the following year. By the way, Seif al-Islam, the son of the late Muammar Gaddafi, is taking part in the presidential elections. Parliamentary elections in Serbia will also be held together with presidential elections on April 3, 2022. However, the country’s President Vucic admitted that they could take place even earlier. He called the priorities for the new government economic development, protecting the interests of Serbia, including the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, fighting the mafia, defending an independent course of Serbian politics and military neutrality, and leadership in Europe for economic development (6% of GDP next year).
In December, President Lukashenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the vote on the country’s new constitution is planned to be held in the third decade of February next year. “In February, on the 20th, something like this, we’ll still think about how it is convenient and better for us according to the law, according to the current constitution, we will submit it to a referendum, the constitution will be submitted to a referendum,” he said. According to the president, the vote will take place “if the war does not start.”
