UN General Anxiety?

World leaders will convene next week for the 81^st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). This year’s theme of Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All emerges as the multilateral system is under strain. The Security Council adopted only 16 resolutions so far this year, reform efforts remain deadlocked, and outgoing UNGA President Annalena Baerbock has called it a “make-or-break moment” for the institution.

Behind the podium, bilateral meetings, Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) signings, and new partnerships will shape how geopolitical alignments shift. For businesses with cross-border exposure, high-level week will reveal how that friction is reshaping the operating environment.

What We’re Watching:

• U.S. positioning. The Trump Administration brings transactional leverage, but its standing with partners has frayed. Expect European and Indo-Pacific delegations to signal recalibration.

• China-Russia coordination. The governments are expected to present a unified front on security and governance, with China pressing its advantage in multilateral rule-setting while Russia relies on that cover.

• AI governance. The G20 Innovation Ministerial earlier this month produced a six-pillar statement on shared tech principles, but the U.S., EU, and China left no closer to agreement on binding frameworks. That divergence moves to New York.

• Critical minerals and supply chains. African leaders will likely press for governance reform amid growing competition over market access, infrastructure investment, and energy transition financing.

• Global health. A High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response will take place on September 25, with the WHO Pandemic Agreement still unratified and negotiations now pushed to 2027.

To learn more ahead of UNGA 2026, contact our team at UNGA@fgsglobal.com or visit our UNGA dashboard. For tailored insights on sectoral, geographic, or scenario-specific risks, please reach out directly to geopolitics@fgsglobal.com.

The EU-China trade relationship is reaching an important inflection point. The diplomatic calendar over the coming months is dense, but the decisions being made now will shape the trajectory of EU trade policy well beyond the autumn, and with it, the operating environment for businesses across the continent. FGS Global’s Public Affairs team offer their read on the landscape ahead.

The EU's trade deficit with China hit a record €360 billion in 2025 – €1 billion a day, and the first year every member state ran a deficit. Brussels has drawn a clear conclusion: Chinese export competition is structurally distorted by state industrial policy and poses an economic security threat that needs to be actively unwound. Autumn ministerial talks with Beijing are unlikely to change that trajectory and expectations are deliberately modest.

What is already in motion matters more. Business leaders should prepare for a more protective and interventionist EU trade architecture, including:

• New import safeguards targeting sectors with acute exposure to Chinese competition, with chemicals leading the queue.

• Supply chain diversification requirements pressing companies to reduce reliance on single-country sourcing in strategic sectors.

• Stronger trade defense tools including faster provisional duties and broader case scopes.

• Tighter market access rules as the Industrial Accelerator Act extends China-facing restrictions into additional sectors.

Diplomatic clarity is not arriving before year-end. Companies that map their exposure and engage now will be better placed than those waiting for diplomatic certainty that is not coming.

For a more in-depth read on the situation, read the Global Public Affairs team’s full analysis here.

As AI tools become standard in the workplace, organizations need to be increasingly conscious of how AI-generated content is identified and disclosed. Last month Anthropic announced it will embed invisible watermarks in AI-generated text and machine-readable provenance metadata in AI-generated files across all Claude products. For most organizations, this is the first time AI watermarking has moved from a technical footnote to a live governance question, and it raises practical questions about acceptable use policies, content authenticity, disclosure obligations, and enterprise AI governance. 

A few things are worth understanding now:

• Watermarking is already active on models released after August 2, 2026. Claude Fable 5.1, released September 1, 2026, is likely producing watermarked content. Anthropic has until December 2, 2026 to update all other models.

• Watermarks are invisible to readers. Detection will require tools Anthropic is still developing.

• A watermark indicates AI was involved in producing or editing content, not that it is entirely AI-generated.

• AI-generated images and graphic files will contain an embedded, machine-readable tag recording AI origin. That tag stays with the file wherever it goes throughout the C2PA ecosystem.

• No immediate action is required, but the December 2 deadline may prompt updates to AI acceptable use policies. Organizations should already be thinking about how this change may impact workflows, especially as Anthropic may retrofit models prior to the deadline.

To learn more about how FGS's AI Advisory team can help your organization navigate the implications, reach out to AIAdvisory@fgsglobal.com.