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For Rishi Sunak, the G20 in Indonesia has been a good platform to find voice on foreign policy, and to press the flesh with allies who could be forgiven for being bemused at best, horrified at worst, by the changing of the guard three times at No 10 in four months.
For the first time in their 15 years of meeting face-to-face, these leaders do so in Bali in the shadow of war in Europe which has exposed the divisions between Western allies and other big industrialised nations, namely China and India, when it comes to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And for our prime minister it has given him an opportunity to “call out” Russia’s “barbaric war” and glower at Russia’s foreign minister across the room.
He has used this moment to re-assert a close relationship with the US – he will meet President Biden on Wednesday – as well as repairing what at times were tense moments with European allies, driven by a combative Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.
But as he represents the UK on the world stage, his chancellor is putting to bed an autumn statement which is going to be a much more difficult prospect to navigate than the diplomacy in Bali.
Thursday is when the rubber hits the road for this prime minister.
It is the moment when the public learn in concrete terms what the fall-out from Liz Truss’s mini-budget and the new PM’s determination to correct the damage will have on their own finances.
And he needs to prepare for a very bumpy ride indeed.
Because the chancellor is looking at how to plug an estimated £55bn black hole in the public finances through a mix of tax rises and spending cuts.
He has promised to be compassionate and fair in how he metes out the pain – but his chancellor has made it clear that everyone’s taxes will be going up.
And as much as Mr Sunak would like to lay the blame for this economic pain at the feet of the global economy, fault lies too with his own party and the Tory government: £30bn of this black hole was a result of Liz…
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