China hosted Iran’s Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and his Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov on Thursday for a meeting, a day after world leaders gathered for a Nato summit.
The Iranian minister’s visit to China was his first foreign trip since war broke out between his country and Israel. The meeting comes with a ceasefire between Iran and Israel appearing to hold after 12 days of fighting that stoked regional and global fears of wider escalation.
The ministers attended an annual gathering of top defence officials of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation member states in the eastern seaside city of Qingdao. The China-led security bloc also includes Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Now in its 22nd edition, the meeting was hosted by China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun.
Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member SCO as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.
The Iranian minister thanked China for its support during the attacks by Israel and the US. “We hope China will continue to stand for justice, help maintain the current ceasefire and play a greater role in easing regional tensions,” he said, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected criticism that it had not done enough to back Iran in its war with Israel, saying it had taken a “clear position” by condemning the US and Israeli strikes. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Iran's Foreign Minister on Monday that US attacks on Iran were “unprovoked and unjustified” during a meeting in Moscow.
China's President Xi Jinping had called for all parties, but “especially Israel”, to cease hostilities during a phone call with Mr Putin last week, Chinese state media reported. Chinese authorities were also reportedly in communication with Iran, Israel and various other parties to push for a ceasefire, ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing.
The SCO meeting was also held the day after a summit of Nato leaders in The Hague, at which members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP to satisfy US President Donald Trump.
Discussions at the summit were largely overshadowed by the conflict in the Middle East, as Mr Trump demanded Israel and Iran respect the ceasefire he announced on June 24 and criticised both for breaching the deadline, before flying to the Netherlands.
The US leader also announced that his country and Iran were preparing for talks next week, claiming his strikes had brought Tehran to the table.
“We’re going to talk to them next week – with Iran – we may sign an agreement. I don’t know, to me, I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
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.”
Hales' batting career
Tests 11; Runs 573; 100s 0; 50s 5; Avg 27.38; Best 94
ODIs 58; Runs 1,957; 100s 5; 50s 11; Avg 36.24; Best 171
T20s 52; Runs 1,456; 100s 1; 50s 7; Avg 31.65; Best 116 not out
Match info
What: Fifa Club World Cup play-off
Who: Al Ain v Team Wellington
Where: Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
When: Wednesday, kick off 7.30pm
