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World leaders’ overseas travels increase

Sep 12, 2025, 7:07am EDT
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Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gestures next to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gestures next to Brazil’s President Luiz. Adriano Machado/File Photo/Reuters Inacio Lula da Silva.

New analysis showed that world leaders are taking nearly double the number of overseas trips compared to three decades ago.

Whereas African leaders accounted for about a fifth of all such international travel from 1990 to 1994, that figure rose to 30% three decades later; Asian and Latin American leaders, by contrast, saw their relative share decline.

The data also illustrates how much borders have shifted: One of the earliest trips studied was by Czechoslovakia’s prime minister to East Germany, neither of which exist today; one of the latest was by Montenegro’s president to Azerbaijan, neither of which existed when the dataset began.

A chart showing the share of total world leaders’ foreign travels.
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