WASHINGTON // US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has “an absolute right” to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia.
The president did not say whether he had revealed classified information about ISIL to Moscow, as published reports have said and as a US official confirmed on Tuesday.
The White House has pushed back against those reports, but has not denied that classified information was disclosed in a May 10 meeting between Mr Trump and Russian diplomats. The Kremlin dismissed the reports as “complete nonsense”.
The news reverberated around the world as countries started second-guessing their own intelligence-sharing agreements with the United States.
A senior European intelligence official said his country might stop sharing information with the US if it confirms that Mr Trump shared classified details with Russian officials. Such sharing “could be a risk for our sources”, the official said.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans alike expressed concern about the president’s disclosures. Republican Senator John McCain called the reports “deeply disturbing” and said they could affect the willingness of Washington’s allies and partners to share intelligence with the US.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, himself a Republican, called the intelligence uproar a distraction from the party’s priorities such as tax reform and replacing the health care law.
“I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things so that we can focus on our agenda,” he told Bloomberg Business.
Meanwhile, Doug Andres, a spokesman for the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said the speaker was looking for “a full explanation of the facts from the administration”.
And senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called for congress to have immediate access to a transcript of Mr Trump’s meeting with the Russians, saying that if the president refuses, Americans will doubt that he is capable of safeguarding critical secrets.
At the White House, Mr Trump tweeted: “I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining ... to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
Mr Trump shared details about an ISIL terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, a senior US official said. The classified information had been shared with the president by an ally, violating the confidentiality of an intelligence-sharing agreement with that country, the official added.
Mr Trump was later informed that he had broken protocol and White House officials placed calls to the national security agency and the CIA looking to minimize any damage.
The official would not say which country’s intelligence was divulged.
* Associated Press
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
Medicus AI
Started: 2016
Founder(s): Dr Baher Al Hakim, Dr Nadine Nehme and Makram Saleh
Based: Vienna, Austria; started in Dubai
Sector: Health Tech
Staff: 119
Funding: €7.7 million (Dh31m)
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
