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Sheikh Khalid Bin Sultan Al-Qasimi, son of Sharjah Ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohamed Al-Qasimi, was found dead in his apartment in London on 1 July, aged 39. No cause of death was announced.An official three-day mourning period was announced. Funeral prayers were held at King Faisal mosque in Sharjah on the morning of 3 July, led by Sheikh Sultan. Sheikh Khalid’s body was then laid to rest in Jubail cemetery.

Minister of defence Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdelaziz gathered senior military officers at his office on 6 July, two days after an attack on a border post in Najran killed several members of the security forces and five attackers (see page 6). It was an opportunity for the chief of general staff General Abdulrahman Bin Saleh Al-Bunyan to stress that “everyone is ready to defend the homeland and implement the royal directives.

The Central Bank of the UAE governor spoke to GSN about why the UAE pulled back from the current plan for GCC monetary union

More than 1,000 exhibitors from 61 countries turned up to the 8-12 November Dubai Airshow, which reflected in its global status to show off some 150 aircraft on the tarmac, from agile drones made by Abu Dhabi-based Adcom Systems all the way up to lumbering Airbus A380s decked out in the liveries of Dubai’s Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways. So far, so normal: what was unusual was the lack of big new orders. Abu Dhabi-based national UAE airline Etihad Airways exercised options for two Boeing 777 freighters, but that was part of an order for 199 planes announced in 2013.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah returned to Kuwait on 30 September from the United States, where he had attended the Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis, held on the margins of the UN General Assembly. The emir had been in the US since 12 September. He was accompanied home by his brother, National Guard deputy chief Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber. A very large group of dignitaries turned out to welcome him home.

Riyadh plans to follow up the opening of the Tadawul stock market to foreign investors, who could buy up to 10% of the available paper, by allowing external investment in the local debt market. The Capital Market Authority (CMA) is working on new rules to promote the local currency bond and sukuk market, which are expected to allow foreign investors to buy bonds for the first time. The CMA is examining a number of measures, including requiring ratings agencies that rate domestic securities to have a local presence, but its rule changes are not expected to be published until 2015.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani formally inaugurated Qatar’s second largest power plant on 25 March, The 2.5GW Umm Al-Houl combined cycle gas turbine plant and desalination unit has been built at Al-Wakrah, 15km south of Doha; it will account for close to a quarter of the country’s total installed power generating capacity and provide up to 136m gallons/day of water.

Doha has again committed to heavy spending on its military, in what looks like a well-co-ordinated (and expensive) attempt to entrench its alliances with key international powers at a time when it is under pressure from three of its Gulf neighbours. The latest deals – which confirm orders previously discussed with Dassault Aviation and BAE Systems – take its outlay to well over $20bn since June; the emirate now has at least 96 fighter jets on order.

A remote farm in the Scottish borders is set to become a falcon breeding and training centre for the Qatari ruling family. According to BBC Scotland, planners have given the go-ahead for the development by Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Al-Thani at Weensmuir Farm

It appears that Iraq will not pass a budget for 2014. While a draft was passed in January, the legislative process quickly broke down due to a dispute related to Kurdish oil exports, and never resumed as the nation become engulfed in a second Sunni insurgency and Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi struggled to form a new government. The government is now expected to simply declare its revenues and expenses by the end of the year; should Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reach a revenue-sharing agreement, it would be wrapped into the budget for 2015.

Atradius Dutch State Business has highlighted a significant series of claims and payment delays.

Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa was admitted to hospital on 11 October for what were described as “successful medical check-ups,” prompting a wave of congratulatory cables from cabinet ministers including recently appointed electricity and water affairs minister Wael Bin Nasser Al-Mubarak and education minister Majid Bin Ali Al-Nuaimi as well as diplomats such as Oman’s ambassador to Bahrain Abdulla Bin Rashid Al-Medelwi and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s special envoy to the Gulf Co-operation Council countries Amable Aguiluz.

New structures are required, and participating bank numbers may be reduced, but the GCC’s syndicated loan market should hit its stride again in 2009, according to project financiers canvassed by GSN.

Kuwait and Iraq have signed two memorandums of understanding related to oil fields on their shared border, and the possibility of Kuwait importing natural gas from Iraq. Kuwait’s state news agency Kuna said on 30 march that Kuwait Petroleum Company had held talks with Iraqi officials over two days, leading to the agreements. Kuwait is exploring various sources of much-needed gas, including imports from Iran.

Reflecting a deteriorating political situation and a consequent economic downturn, GSN has lowered its risk grade for Syria to E4 (from D3).