Mr Trump called on Tuesday for more Saudi financial input to help stabilisation efforts in Syria and to keep US military presence in the country. Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg
Mr Trump called on Tuesday for more Saudi financial input to help stabilisation efforts in Syria and to keep US military presence in the country. Chris Kleponis/Pool via Bloomberg

The Americas

US postpones Camp David summit with Gulf leaders until September

Donald Trump called Saudi King Salman and discussed Iran, the conflict in Yemen and other regional issues

Joyce Karam
Joyce Karam

April 03, 2018

The White House is postponing the Camp David summit from next month and until September, due to the continued stalemate in the Qatar dispute and a crowded foreign policy agenda for the US government.

Reuters, quoting five US officials on Tuesday, said that Washington has decided to postpone the summit with Gulf leaders (and possibly Egypt) from May until September, citing a busy calendar that includes negotiations with North Korea, and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal next month.

The delay is also attributed to the continued vacancy for a permanent secretary of state awaiting the Senate confirmation hearings for Mike Pompeo.

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While a US official told Reuters “this was entirely our [US] decision”, regional sources familiar with the negotiations told The National that a combination of reasons that include a continued stalemate with Qatar prompted the delay.

Those sources said that the Trump administration was informed directly last month that the resolution to the Qatar dispute which started last June must come from within the region (not in Camp David). Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir said as much ten days ago in Washington.

Mr Jubeir told The National at a press conference that if the US were to host a Camp David summit in May it would not be about Qatar. The dispute with Doha is an “inter-GCC problem”, he said.

A US delegation to the Gulf last month that included retired General Anthony Zinni and Tim Lenderking, deputy assistant secretary of state for Arabian Gulf affairs, failed to achieve a breakthrough. As the negotiations stalled, ideas were floated to have a counter-Iran summit or a a second counter violent extremism (CVE) summit as alternatives.

Those ideas were welcomed by all sides but stumbled with the busy foreign policy agenda for the White House in May as it prepares for a possible summit about North Korea and a negotiating deadline of May 12 for the Iran nuclear deal.

Separately, the White House announced that Mr Trump spoke on Monday with King Salman of Saudi Arabia where they discussed counter-Iran measures, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Qatar dispute, Syria and the war in Yemen.

The White House said Mr Trump “expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia following the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-enabled Houthi ballistic missile attacks against civilian targets in Saudi Arabia on March 25.”

While emphasising the need “to counter Iranian malign influence and defeat terrorists and extremists” the “two leaders agreed on the significance of reinvigorating a political process to end the war in Yemen” the White House said.

On Syria, joint cooperation for “an enduring defeat of ISIL and counter Iranian efforts to exploit the Syrian conflict to pursue its destabilising regional ambitions” were discussed. Mr Trump called on Tuesday for more Saudi financial input to help stabilisation efforts in Syria and to keep US military presence in the country.

Also on Tuesday, Mr Trump spoke to the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “The president thanked the Emir for Qatar’s continued commitment to counter terrorist financing and extremism” the White House said.  Iran’s behaviour – that the White House called reckless and destabilising – was also on the agenda.

On the Qatar dispute particularly, the White House said that Mr Trump “discussed the obstacles to restoring unity in the GCC.”  The Qatari Emir was expected to visit Washington later this month.

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.”