The foreign ministers of the Gulf Co-operation Council countries on Wednesday will hold their ordinary meeting at the GCC Secretariat in Riyadh where they will discuss regional developments.
The meeting is one of a series that are held every three months, in which Gulf politicians discuss the output of ministerial committees that are established after an annual summit.
A Secretariat statement said: “The meeting, which is held every three months, usually discusses the results of the ministerial committees in various sectors such as health, education and other files concerned with developing and strengthening the GCC path."
A statement after the meetings is expected to touch upon the recent rapprochement deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In March they announced a deal to re-establish ties, ending a hiatus since 2016, when relations broke down after the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and ensuing attacks on the kingdom's diplomatic buildings in Iran.
The agreement was the result of years of talks brokered in Iraq and China.
The foreign minsters’ meeting in Riyadh will also be the first to be hosted by the newly appointed GCC Secretary General Jasem Al Budaiwi.
Recent efforts to bring back Syria into the Arab fold are also expected on the agenda. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership after the outbreak of the civil war, and most countries severed ties with Damascus, too.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan this month said consensus was building in the Arab world that isolating Syria was not working and that dialogue with Damascus was needed, particularly to address its humanitarian situation, though he said it was "too early to discuss" its return.
President Sheikh Mohamed met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, where the two leaders discussed stability in the Middle East.
It was Mr Al Assad's second visit to Abu Dhabi last year.
The GCC states and China in December agreed on a four-year joint plan of action to enhance their strategic partnership, according to the final communique that concluded the council’s 43rd annual meeting.
The statement was the result of the inaugural China-GCC summit, which took place in Riyadh in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed Elkhereiji received Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al Busaidi, upon his arrival at King Khalid International Airport, Saudi's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Wednesday afternoon.
The reception was attended by the Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Mr. Jassim Muhammad Al Budaiwi.
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal met his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, on the sidelines of the meeting. They reviewed the "strong relations" between the two brotherly countries, MoFA reported, and further ways to support and develop them in various fields. They also discussed ongoing developments in the region and internationally.
More on animal trafficking
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Muguruza's singles career in stats
WTA titles 3
Prize money US$11,128,219 (Dh40,873,133.82)
Wins / losses 293 / 149
57%20Seconds
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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
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On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
How to become a Boglehead
Bogleheads follow simple investing philosophies to build their wealth and live better lives. Just follow these steps.
• Spend less than you earn and save the rest. You can do this by earning more, or being frugal. Better still, do both.
• Invest early, invest often. It takes time to grow your wealth on the stock market. The sooner you begin, the better.
• Choose the right level of risk. Don't gamble by investing in get-rich-quick schemes or high-risk plays. Don't play it too safe, either, by leaving long-term savings in cash.
• Diversify. Do not keep all your eggs in one basket. Spread your money between different companies, sectors, markets and asset classes such as bonds and property.
• Keep charges low. The biggest drag on investment performance is all the charges you pay to advisers and active fund managers.
• Keep it simple. Complexity is your enemy. You can build a balanced, diversified portfolio with just a handful of ETFs.
• Forget timing the market. Nobody knows where share prices will go next, so don't try to second-guess them.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Brief scoreline:
Liverpool 5
Keita 1', Mane 23', 66', Salah 45' 1, 83'
Huddersfield 0
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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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