As a constitutional monarch, King Charles III has no obvious direct role in dealing with the crisis in diplomacy that Donald Trump has triggered with many of America’s closest allies. In a series of personal meetings, the British sovereign has taken on elevated significance as the US tilts away from the eight-decade alliances it enjoyed with other western nations.
Mr Trump’s mood was said to be very good about a forthcoming state visit to the UK. It is his second state visit to the country, following his first-term trip in 2019. King Charles’s letter setting out the invitation, as well as a proposed meeting in Scotland, where Mr Trump owns a couple of golf courses, was handed over in the Oval Office by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his meeting with the US leader.
So far, so good. Perhaps Mr Starmer avoided the fate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a day later – there was a shouting match – by using the letter as a gesture to open up Mr Trump’s goodwill. A senior royal adviser has said the king will undoubtedly hope his decades of experience with US leaders can help deal with some of the tension with Washington.
The royals have the option of thinking in terms of decades and they don’t have to conform to the pressures of the latest news cycle in making their interventions.
There are pictures of the British monarch as a boy meeting then US president Dwight D Eisenhower on the royal estate in Balmoral in the 1950s. King Charles has met and held discussions with every US president since the time of Richard Nixon. The royal aide, speaking at the weekend, said the late Queen Elizabeth would regularly recall to one president the kind of conversations she had appreciated with their predecessors.
However, the positivity emanating from the White House may also have immediately cooled, according to reports from the US. Within days of Mr Trump brandishing the invitation letter live on air, King Charles was engaged with some of the leaders most on edge because of the US President’s policies.
The king invited Mr Zelenskyy to his country estate to hear from the Ukrainian leader only days after he was thrown out of the White House. King Charles was willing to showcase an intimate royal audience, knowing the White House glare could easily attach itself to the event. With the Europeans announcing their intention to begin rearmament out of fear of a US pullback, there was a sense that the royal family, alongside the UK government, was giving a boost to solidarity in the face of Washington’s hostility.
The UK monarch is also head of state of Canada. There, his role is represented by the Governor General while ultimately the monarch is a symbolic head of the nation. The US President has taken to trash-talking Canada as the 51st state. The tariff wars he has initiated around the world are particularly bearing down on Canadian trade, implying the country of 40 million is freeloading its existence on the back of American prosperity.
There have been many calls from Canadians for King Charles to speak out against the US encroachment. Following his meeting with Mr Zelenskyy, the king held a farewell audience for Justin Trudeau, the departing Canadian prime minister. Mark Carney, the new Canadian leader, is well known in royal circles. He has served as governor of the Bank of England and worked with the palace on sustainability and climate change concerns before entering politics.
The British royals don’t have to conform to the pressures of the latest news cycle in making their interventions
King Charles marked Commonwealth Day on Monday by praising the organisation’s role in bringing people together in a special message to all its members. He addressed the uncertain times the world is facing and asked that people take these divisions as a source of strength to support each other.
The informal British constitution stipulates that the monarch always acts within the government’s advice. And with his geopolitical outlook finely tuned to the issues that Mr Trump has sought to challenge, King Charles will have his work cut out to stay on even terms with the US President.
Planning for the state visit will test the US leader’s apparently fond attitudes to the British royals. Mr Trump is particularly attached to the roots of his Scottish mother and his two trophy golf establishments in Scotland.
The soft power that the UK is relying on from the royal family can only stretch so far. It is up to King Charles to see how far. The government is hoping that Mr Trump’s aggressive lines on Ukraine, Canada (and Greenland) can drop by the wayside at some point. It is also hoping for exemptions from the tariffs that the Trump administration is promising to roll out.
As his wider Commonwealth message indicated, the King is also keen to stress to the US leader that the physical harmony of the planet must also be addressed. With the Earth still stalked by the climate change crisis, the King is said to be seized by the need to remind people that the issue needs addressing. That is a tough sell as Mr Trump promises incentives for his “drill, baby drill” agenda.
Yet the word from Buckingham Palace is that the monarch is determined to play a prominent diplomatic role to show that the institution has relevance and continues to be an asset to the UK.
The Details
Article 15
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
More on Palestine-Israeli relations
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
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