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Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has been seen in several western capitals (including London in May and Washington in June) over the past few months, but has also been travelling at home.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani was in Germany on 18 February to attend the Munich Security Conference (see also Diplomatic brief). He was in the front row to watch German Chancellor Angela Merkel give her speech and also held a series of meetings on the sidelines of the event, including with Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian, US acting secretary of defence Patrick Shanahan, US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel.

kh Nasser Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa officially launched his professional cycling team, Bahrain Merida, on 8 January. The team consists of 30 riders, led by Vincenzo Nibali, the Italian cyclist who has won all three grand tours (the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España). The launch included a visit to Safriya Palace where the team was presented to King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

It remains to be seen whether the sectarian solidarity on show in Kuwait since the dreadful bombing of the Al-Imam Al-Sadiq Shiite mosque on 26 June will prove stronger than the polarising effect of the conflicts pitting Sunni against Shia throughout the region. Given the regional context, and the disproportional power of extremist minorities, it seems unlikely that sectarian rifts will be genuinely healed any time soon but, nonetheless, Kuwait’s public display of unity has been sincere, and impressive.

The UK government on 13 October pulled out of a contract to provide training for the Saudi penal system. Downing Street said “the government has decided that it won’t be proceeding” with the £5.9m ($9m) bid because of changes in the provision of such services by the UK Ministry of Justice. But its timing was linked to an upsurge in public concern over human rights, including the case of 74-year-old Karl Andree, who has not been released following a 12-month sentence and faces 360 lashes for trafficking homemade alcohol.

The federal government’s annual meetings, co-chaired by Vice President, prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, was held in Abu Dhabi on 26-27 September. The meeting was attended by 450 dignitaries including ministers and heads of federal bodies and local government agencies. A number of long-term national strategies were launched, among them the UAE Soft Power Strategy, the Emirates Higher Education Strategy and the UAE Fourth Industrial Revolution Strategy.

The UAE has donated several armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and military pick-up trucks to General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). The gift underlines Abu Dhabi’s support for the fractured country’s Tobruk-based government. The Libya Herald newspaper said the consignment – which is believed to include new Panthera T-6 light APCs and Toyota Landcruisers – was delivered to LNA headquarters in Tobruk on 23 April. The Libya Herald quoted an army spokesman saying some of the new APCs will be deployed against Islamic State fighters around Sirte.

Majid Al Futtaim Properties (MAF) has said it will spend Dh1bn ($0.3bn) expanding one of Dubai’s largest malls – the Mall of the Emirates. In a statement on 10 September, MAF said the mall would be redeveloped to include a new fashion district, luxury retail, and sports and leisure precinct. The mall is a major attraction because it houses the only indoor ski resort in the region, launched in 2005. Phase one of the expansion has already begun: a Dh100m district dedicated to contemporary fashion. The news – the latest of a string of mega-projects in the emirate announced since 2012 (GSN 937/13) – follows an announcement by Emaar Properties earlier this year that it planned to expand Dubai Mall, the world’s largest mall, with a view to attracting more than 100m visitors each year.

Emi Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani has appointed former economy and commerce minister Sheikh Ahmed Bin Jassim Bin Mohammed Al-Thani as an adviser on economic affairs, via an Emiri order issued on 8 June. Sheikh Ahmed is also a former director general of the Al Jazeera Media Group. He was handed the role of economy and commerce minister soon after Tamim took power in 2013 and remained in that post until 2018, when Ali Bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari took over at the newly created Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) met French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his delegation on 15 September at the Al-Mamoura building in Abu Dhabi. MBZ and Le Drian discussed strategic co-operation and co-ordination in the areas of the military and defence, and the latest regional and international developments. Also attending the meeting were Lieutenant General Hamad Mohammed Thani Al-Rumaithi, chief of staff of the UAE Armed Forces, and a number of officials.

The British-Omani military exercises Al-Shomoukh 2 and Saif Al Sarea 3 were still in full swing on land, sea and air as GSN went to press – a clear demonstration of international support for a sultanate that has long been seen as a maverick within the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The exercise is a sign for Muscat that it still has friends in high places – which is particularly important these days given the concerns that are bubbling up among the sultanate’s strategists, as well as analysts in Washington and elsewhere, about the intentions of its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.

Population growth is a universal feature of the Gulf Co-operation Council region at a time of booming oil-financed expansion, with a surge in construction activity and accelerating demand for services creating an almost insatiable need for labour. The GCC thus continues to suck in foreign workers to meet real present economic needs. This is also the case for some sectors in Bahrain, but there is also concern that in the small communally divided island state migration policy is serving political ends too – with potentially dangerous consequences.

London’s High Court is preparing for a high-profile case due to start in February, involving two Saudi royals: businessman and Allegiance Commission chairman Mishaal Bin Abdelaziz and his son Abdelaziz (Apex Global Management Ltd v FI Call Ltd, Global Torch Ltd, HRH Prince Abdelaziz Mishaal Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud, Emad Mahmoud Ahmed Abu-Ayshih, HRH Prince Mishaal Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud, GSN 947/6). The defendants are accused of funding Hizbollah and spent months trying to have the case heard in secret based on the argument that they were entitled to sovereign immunity (GSN 943/9) and that a public hearing would damage Saudi relations with Britain and the US (GSN 941/7).

In parallel to an SR9bn ($2.4bn) upgrade of school facilities and teaching methods under the banner of the King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Project for Developing Public Education (Tatweer), the Saudi Ministry of Education (MoE) is tackling the ideological roots of jihadist activity. MoE officials have confirmed that school pupils will be denied access to supposedly extremist

The UAE was among over 50 countries that lined up on 1 July with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in unambiguous opposition to United States and other western foreign policy, voting in favour of Beijing’s imposition of a controversial national security law over Hong Kong at the 44th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regular session. Of the 53 countries that supported China, more than 40 have agreements to join President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road vision for a “balanced and harmonious” infrastructure-driven new world order.