Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a writer and researcher, and the founder of Barjeel Art Foundation
February 09, 2024
Over the past few months, much has been said about the relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, some of it strikingly shallow and misinformed, with recent op-eds characterising it as a “rivalry” or a “rift”, and one going as far as calling it a “theatre of confrontation” as though their relations are a zero-sum game. Such alarmism led me to wonder if we were even discussing the same two countries.
That said, is there competition and differences of opinion and approach on some issues between the two Gulf powers? There certainly is. Competition, in fact, is one of the secret recipes of the UAE’s very own success. One emirate’s liberalisations of investment policies encourage the others to do the same. Today, the UAE itself has more than one leading airport, and airline, more than one leading ports operator and more than one financial hub. Can’t this be the case with Saudi Arabia, too? Furthermore, disagreements arise even among family businesses of the same generation (including my own family’s), which is where the ideas of conflict management and conflict resolutions are best utilised.
Last month, I had the opportunity to travel between Saudi Arabia and the UAE to co-teach a course titled “Leadership and Social Transformation” with Harvard professor Tarek Masoud, director of the Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Over 10 packed days, we had the opportunity to meet with more than 30 senior leaders in both countries, in fields as varied as foreign policy, economics, culture and sport, and not a single one of them spoke even with the slightest hint of reservation about the growth of the other country.
In fact, on our first day at the Arab Strategy Forum, a panel discussion involving two senior leaders set the tone for the entire visit. The moderator of the session asked: “What we see on social media is [are references] to a tug of war between both sides [UAE and Saudi]. What is the story?”
The Neom stand the Arabian Travel Market. Antonie Robertson / The National
One emirate’s liberalisations of investment policies encourage the others to do the same
Prince Turki Al Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador and head of intelligence, turned to Dr Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President, and asked in a friendly way, “Is there anything between us?” to the audience’s laughter and applause. Dr Gargash himself replied: “Everything that is happening in Saudi Arabia is positive for the UAE and everything that is happening in the UAE is positive for Saudi Arabia.”
A few days later, a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos moderated by The National’s editor-in-chief, Mina Al-Oraibi, and composed of officials and industry leaders from across the Gulf, agreed that these states “complement, rather than compete” with each other.
To explore this issue further, I turned to the Emirati political science professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla and asked him about the Saudi Arabia Regional Headquarters Programme, which aims to attract foreign companies to set up their regional bases in the kingdom. “Even if 10 per cent of the firms end up relocating to Saudi Arabia,” Dr Abdulla told me, “the rate at which Dubai attracts firms means this 10 per cent will be replenished within a short time.”
In fact, the social and economic liberalisation that Saudi Arabia is undergoing in recent years, partly to encourage initiatives such as the Regional Headquarters Programme, will only benefit the kingdom and the wider region, not least the UAE. Let’s go back in history to see the bigger picture.
Following the devastation of the Second World War, Jean Monnet, then commissioner general of the French National Planning Board, proposed what later became known as the “Monnet Plan”, which ultimately led to greater economic co-ordination between France and Germany and, eventually, to the EU. Although Mr Monnet was French and despite the fact that both states had just fought each other in a war, he considered German economic prosperity and closer economic ties between France and Germany as essential.
Similarly, and in the Gulf region itself, as documented in the 2021 book Building Sharjah, co-edited by Todd Reisz and I, in 1951 the state of Kuwait started a programme dedicated to the Trucial Coast emirates, in which it paid for doctors and teachers (including my own mother) to care for and educate the people of what later became the UAE.
President Sheikh Mohamed, Bahrain's King Hamad, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, Oman's Deputy Prime Minister Sayyed Fahd bin Mahmoud, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Salem Abdullah Al Sabah and Jasem Mohamed Al Budaiwi, Secretary General of the GCC at the summit in Doha. Abdulla Al Neyadi / Presidential Court
Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President, speaks to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, at the 44th GCC Summit in Qatar. Abdulla Al Neyadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Mohamed with King Hamad of Bahrain and Crown Prince Mohamed. Abdulla Al Neyadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, UAE National Security Adviser and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi, speaks to Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy. Abdulla Al Neyadi / Presidential Court
President Sheikh Mohamed is received by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim in Doha. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Recent Gulf diplomacy has focused on securing a quick end to Israel's war in Gaza and a return to a multilateral peace process. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Mohamed is leading the UAE delegation, which includes Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, National Security Adviser and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Mansour is welcomed by Sheikh Tamim upon his arrival in Doha. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Abdullah with GCC secretary general Jasem Al Budaiwi in Doha. Mohamed Al Hammadi / UAE Presidential Court
Sheikh Abdullah, Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed, chairman of the Office of Development and Martyrs' Families Affairs at the Presidential Court, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed and Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad, private affairs adviser in the Presidential Court, attend a reception in Doha. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Tahnoun is received by Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad upon his arrival in Doha. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Other topics on the agenda of the GCC meeting include the Gulf railway project. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
GCC leaders are also expected to discuss tourist visa strategies for the period 2023 to 2030. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
Sheikh Tamim urged the UN Security Council to press Israel to return to the negotiating table. Mohamed Al Hammadi / UAE Presidential Court
Dr Khalid Al Attiyah, Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, and Sheikh Jasem bin Hamad attend a reception for Sheikh Mohamed before the start of the GCC meeting. Mohamed Al Hammadi / Presidential Court
In a landmark speech in 1997, Mahathir Mohamad, then prime minister of Malaysia, coined the term “prosper-thy-neighbour”. The concept Dr Mahathir went on to explain basically means “if you help your neighbour to prosper, you will prosper along with it”. That stands in stark contrast to the infamous mercantilist economic concept of “beggar-thy-neighbour”, in which countries pursue self-interested economic policies even if they impoverish their neighbours. Countries that follow the “prosper-thy-neighbour” doctrine understand that their own long-term economic growth largely depends on being in a prosperous neighbourhood.
In The Bottom Billion, economist Paul Collier writes that one of the reasons that countries fail is having “bad neighbours” (especially if the country is landlocked). Improving one’s neighbourhood thus becomes key to one’s own prosperity. Even today, Norway, a Scandinavian oil-rich country that is not itself an EU member, supports the “European Neighbourhood Policy”, which aims to “promote economic, political and social development to the south and east of the EU’s borders”. Norway is one of the leading contributors to the European Economic Area Agreement, and through Norway Grants, has supported countries in Eastern Europe that later became members of the EU. Norway, being a major trader with the EU, understands that the more prosperous its European neighbourhood is, the more prosperous and safer its own people will be.
In recent years, economic integration between the Gulf states has only intensified with talk of a joint Gulf tourism visa, the $1.6 trillion GCC electricity interconnection grid and a GCC-wide rail network being but a few examples of this gathering pace that, in some cases such as the electrical grid, is also being opened to non-Gulf states such as Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.
Today, the Arab world is a region of 400 million people that will, according to the UN, need 33 million more jobs by 2030. Competition among Arab states to reform and invest in education and infrastructure as well as attract talent and foreign investment is essential. What is happening between Saudi Arabia and the UAE is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game in which we can all be winners.
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Power: 510hp at 9,000rpm
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Price: From Dh801,800
The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior Ministry of Defence General Intelligence Directorate Air Force Intelligence Agency Political Security Directorate Syrian National Security Bureau Military Intelligence Directorate Army Supply Bureau General Organisation of Radio and TV Al Watan newspaper Cham Press TV Sama TV
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
SERIES SCHEDULE
First Test, Galle International Stadium
July 26-30 Second Test, Sinhalese Sports Club Ground
August 3-7 Third Test, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 12-16 First ODI, Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium
August 20 Second ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 24 Third ODI, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
August 27 Fourth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
August 31 Fifth ODI, R Premadasa Stadium
September 3 T20, R Premadasa Stadium
September 6
Scoreline:
Barcelona 2
Suarez 85', Messi 86'
Atletico Madrid 0
Red card: Diego Costa 28' (Atletico)
How to wear a kandura
Dos
Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
PRESIDENTS CUP
Draw for Presidents Cup fourball matches on Thursday (Internationals first mention). All times UAE:
02.32am (Thursday): Marc Leishman/Joaquin Niemann v Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas
02.47am (Thursday): Adam Hadwin/Im Sung-jae v Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
03.02am (Thursday): Adam Scott/An Byeong-hun v Bryson DeChambeau/Tony Finau
03.17am (Thursday): Hideki Matsuyama/CT Pan v Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed
03.32am (Thursday): Abraham Ancer/Louis Oosthuizen v Dustin Johnson/Gary Woodland
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples. Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts. Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch
Power: 710bhp
Torque: 770Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 2.9 seconds
Top Speed: 340km/h
Price: Dh1,000,885
On sale: now
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
