Senior US and Pakistani officials have held difficult talks in Islamabad amid a worsening relationship, as each country searches for a way forward in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Led on the US side by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and on the Pakistani side by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, Friday's meetings came one day after Ms Sherman visited Pakistan's arch-rival India.
While at an event hosted by the Ananta Aspen Centre in Mumbai, she pointedly said: "We don't see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan".
She added the US had "no interest" in returning to the days when Washington treated India and Pakistan equally.
The State Department only provided terse readouts of Ms Sherman's meetings with Mr Qureshi and Mr Yusuf.
“Deputy Secretary Sherman emphasised the importance of a co-ordinated approach to Afghanistan and other issues vital to regional stability," the readout of the meeting with Mr Qureshi said.
In a video posted by the US embassy in Islamabad, Ms Sherman said: “We discussed the importance of holding the Taliban accountable to the commitments they have made, because it is in all our interest to have a stable and inclusive Afghanistan that does not serve as a safe harbour for terrorists".
She noted that other issues including climate change and the pandemic were discussed, and credited Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees for more than four decades.
Islamabad denies it supports the Afghan Taliban but western powers say Pakistan's intelligence services have maintained a close relationship with the militants since they were toppled in 2001, and thousands of Pakistani madrassa students have filled the Taliban's ranks over the years.
Islamabad's relationship with the Taliban has long drawn ire in Washington and forced a reassessment of Pakistani ties with the US.
Islamabad’s approach “is one that has involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it's one that's involved harbouring members of the Taliban,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month.
He told Congress the US is reviewing its relationship with Pakistan.
”This is one of the things we're going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead – the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years, but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that," Mr Blinken said.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15 and the withdrawal of the last US forces two weeks later, US diplomacy has been focused on extracting commitments from Taliban officials on upholding women rights, recognising international agreements that the former government had adhered to, and co-operating in the fight against terrorism.
According to Michael Kugleman, a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre and a South Asia expert, Washington wants Islamabad to press the Taliban to take a more moderate position on issues like inclusivity and women’s rights.
"It also likely wants Pakistan to assist with US counterterrorism objectives in Afghanistan. This could entail stepped-up intelligence-sharing cooperation and overflight rights for US aircrafts carrying out counterterrorism activities in Afghanistan," he told The National.
He saw the trip as something of a missed opportunity for both countries, with the US keen to focus mainly on narrowly defined issues around Afghanistan, while Pakistan wants to discuss about a wider set of issues.
"The US withdrawal from Afghanistan hasn’t changed this calculus. And that’s a shame, because US-Pakistan cooperation around issues like climate change and cyber security would entail conversations that are more pleasant and less tense than those around Afghanistan, where the two often differ," Mr Kugelman said.
Ms Sherman is the most senior US diplomat to visit Islamabad since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Washington-New Delhi relations have experienced a boost in recent years, including under Mr Biden, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the White House for a sit-down last month.
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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.”
