ISLAMABAD // Pakistan and the United States agreed yesterday to a new US$2 billion (Dh7.34bn) military aid programme after three days of dialogue that failed to produce specific public commitments by the Pakistanis to shut down Afghan Taliban factions based on their territory.
Over the past month, Pakistan has come under increasing pressure from Washington to launch military operations against Afghan Taliban factions and al Qa'eda operatives in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
In a report to Congress on October 4, Barack Obama, the US president, said Pakistan's reluctance to act against the Haqqani Network faction was a "political choice" rather than one based on the capacity constraints of its military, which it has often cited.
After the talks ended in Washington yesterday, Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said Pakistan had lost 30,000 civilians and 7,000 security personnel in its fight against terrorists, more than Nato has lost in its invasion of Afghanistan.
"It seems easy to dismiss Pakistan's contribution," he said. "There are still tongue-in-cheek comments, even in this capital, about Pakistan's heart not really being in this fight. I do not know what greater evidence to offer than the blood of our people."
He did, however, seek to address reports about westerners training in terrorist camps in North Waziristan in preparation for attacks in the United States and Europe.
This month the CIA vastly increased the number of missile attacks launched from Predator drones on terrorist targets in both North Waziristan and South Waziristan, apparently in response to that specific threat.
The United States does not officially acknowledge the drone programme.
Mr Qureshi said Pakistan would not allow terrorist groups based in the tribal borderlands to "become a threat to people in other countries".
He also sought to distance his government from the perception in Washington and other Nato capitals that it categorised militant groups according to whether or not they supported Pakistan's strategic goals in Afghanistan and South Asia.
"There can be no differentiation between good and bad terrorists," he said.
Mr Qureshi's statement was a reiteration of Islamabad's position. So was his call for better co-ordination with the US on counter-terrorism operations on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and to work together for a solution in Afghanistan.
Similarly, he rejected repeated urging, in private, by the Obama administration to allow US military units to mount covert operations against Afghan militants and al Qa'eda based in the borderlands.
Mr Qureshi, repeating a phrase he has consistently uttered at public engagements in Washington, said: "Pakistan's territorial sovereignty is not negotiable."
Speaking first, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, steered clear of any comment about Islamabad's counter-terrorism strategy or other political differences between the strategic partners, except to acknowledge the loss of Pakistani lives.
Her announcement of the military aid programme was limited to its five-year duration, starting 2012, and $2 billion cost, with the added provision that it required approval from Congress.
Instead, she focused on the wider substance of the three-day dialogue, involving 13 sector-specific "working groups" of officials, 10 of which finalised plans for funding under the civilian aid programme.
"There is much to celebrate in the Pakistan-US friendship. It bodes well for both countries," she said. "But let us not forget that we are once again engaged as partners in a momentous challenge, a momentous struggle. I would call it the defining struggle of our times.
"We are fighting an enemy that offers no quarter, obeys no law, and holds nothing sacred. We have both lost valuable lives."
The sensitivity of US officials is widely viewed as reflecting the Obama administration's determination to continue to woo Pakistan's support, rather than trying to coerce it.
However, analysts in Washington have predicted the passage of the military aid bill could be rocky, particularly if Mr Obama's Democrats lose their majority in the House of Representatives in November's elections.
The extent of Congress's say in the US-Pakistan relationship was marked on Thursday by press revelations that Patrick Leahy, a Democratic senator, had invoked legislation he championed in 1997 to block funding to Pakistani military units shown by a recent video to have carried out extra-judicial killings of terrorist suspects.
thussain@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Omar Karmi in Washington
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.”
Company%20profile
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Business Insights
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
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Disclaimer
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Rating: 4/5
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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if you go
The flights
Emirates offer flights to Buenos Aires from Dubai, via Rio De Janeiro from around Dh6,300. emirates.com
Seeing the games
Tangol sell experiences across South America and generally have good access to tickets for most of the big teams in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Independiente. Prices from Dh550 and include pick up and drop off from your hotel in the city. tangol.com
Staying there
Tangol will pick up tourists from any hotel in Buenos Aires, but after the intensity of the game, the Faena makes for tranquil, upmarket accommodation. Doubles from Dh1,110. faena.com
