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It’s been a busy summer for Emirati foreign minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (ABZ). As Egypt unravels, the UAE has found itself (willingly) thrust into the role of regional go-to guy, at times explaining the shape of the crisis to a much-confused West. Within days of the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi (GSN 951/1), ABZ was in Cairo. On 9 July, he accompanied his brother, national security adviser Hazza Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to see General Abdelfattah El Sisi and interim president Adly Mansour; there followed the announcement of $3bn in aid.

Saudi Arabia, after all, is to house the planned Gulf Co-operation Council central bank. Following the 11th GCC consultative summit, held in the Kingdom on 5 May, the GCC’s outgoing secretary-general Abdelrahman Al-Attiyah announced that Riyadh would be the new joint monetary council’s base; this institution will eventually evolve into the GCC central bank.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has made a KD5m ($16m) donation to a recently launched fund to mitigate the damage done by the spread of the Covid-19 in his country. The donation, announced on 2 April by Emiri Diwan affairs minister Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, was made on behalf of the wider Al-Sabah family. Similar health endowment funds have been set up elsewhere around the Gulf, including Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Russia and Kuwait have held talks on building a nuclear power plant in the emirate, according to comments by Russian energy minister Alexander Novak to the Rossiya-24 television channel on 22 January. The discussions, held in Vienna on the sidelines of a meeting to discuss the recent deal between oil producing countries to cut output, also touched on co-operation in gas and petroleum services. Novak held separate talks with Saudi officials on the sidelines of the meeting.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company received a standalone credit rating of AA+ from Fitch Ratings earlier this month, putting it in the upper tier of oil and gas companies globally. Adnoc said it had sought the credit rating to support its strategy of expanding its range of partners and investors

Kuwait’s appeals court has adjourned the trial of opposition figure Musallam Al-Barrak until 27 October. According to newspaper reports, the court said it wanted to hear the testimony of witnesses who had failed to show up. Al-Barrak was sentenced to five years for his public criticism of Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah during an election rally in 2012; in May, the appeals court overturned that verdict and ordered a retrial. Al-Barrak’s lawyers have argued they were not allowed to call the witnesses they had requested.

Data for H1 2016 confirm the extent of competition in the global market for liquefied natural gas and shifting market trends in critical Asian LNG markets. Australian LNG exports just outpaced Qatari sales to the region, for the first time since H2 2010. Demand from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan continued to decline, and while Chinese imports continue to grow, this is insufficient to offset the wider regional downturn.

A planned debate in the National Assembly (parliament) over amendments to the 1959 nationality law has been delayed until late March, putting off further public clashes over a contentious issue for a few weeks at least. Opposition MPs are demanding the law should make clear that citizenship cannot be revoked without a final court ruling, while the government argues such decisions should be in its hands alone. Revoking citizenship is a popular option for Gulf authorities trying to silence opposition voices and has been used recently in both Kuwait (GSN 1,013/1) and Bahrain (GSN 1,018/16).

Trade and energy minister Yukio Edano has been in Abu Dhabi in an attempt to shore up Japan’s position as the emirate’s largest crude customer.

The non-executive chairman of the Qatar Investment Fund, Nick Wilson, published an op-ed in Arabian Business on 12 March in which he argued that Qatar’s stance during the latest Gulf diplomatic spat should act as a spur to invest there. While Qatar’s neighbours in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) are conservative and perturbed by progressivism, Wilson said, Qatar’s bold intervention in Libya, its embracing of “liberal-minded Al Jazeera”, the relatively high proportion of women in the workplace, and the rarity and smoothness of Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad’s early succession last year should all be read as signs that Qatar is an excellent place to invest.

The diplomatic community in the UAE is still weighing the significance of a series of early August tweets by federal Vice President and prime minister and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, in which ‘MBR’ criticised politicians who failed to focus on facilitating and managing change “in their own backyards”. In a trio of messages on 4 August, MBR tweeted that “great achievements speak for themselves, not empty speeches with meaningless words” and that the Arab world had a “surplus of politicians” but “a shortage of administrators” who were focused on the plight of the people and on delivering concrete improvements.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah travelled to Turkey from 20-22 March, at the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was bestowed with the Order of the State of Turkey, the republic’s highest honour awarded to foreign nationals; in return, the emir awarded Erdogan the Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer. Memorandums of understanding were signed covering co-operation around tourism, military links and Islamic affairs. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development offered funds to help with the Syrian refugee crisis in Gaziantep, Kilis and Sanliurfa.

The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract with Airbus to buy 30 H225M Caracal helicopters and associated support services. The contract was announced on 9 August during a visit to Kuwait by French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The aircraft will be operated by both the Kuwait Air Force and Kuwait National Guard. The contract is larger than expected – media reports in June suggested Kuwait would buy 24 helicopters, which were estimated to be worth around $1.1bn.

King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz has held talks with visiting Bahraini Crown Prince Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa and US assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism John Brennan.