NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Germany’s Ambassador to the U.S. Emily Haber about two summits where her country will be a major player — the G-7 and NATO — and their priorities.
The Prince of Wales’ Charitable Fund is under fire for taking multiple cash payments from the Qatari royal family
Prince Charles is facing a possible investigation by the UK’s Charity Commission regarding multi-million pound donations made by the Qatari royal family to the Prince of Wales’ Charitable Fund (PWCF), his grant-making entity, following a series of UK media revelations on Sunday.
The prince is believed to have received three separate payments of cash totalling over £2.5 million (€3 million) between the years 2011 and 2015, personally accepting the donations in cash from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al Thani, who served as PM of Qatar from 2007 to 2013.
Neither party has been accused of wrongdoing, but the air of impropriety lingers in the British media around the situation, in which large sums of cash stashed in suitcases and Fortnum and Mason shopping bags changed hands during quasi-secret meetings. Because the appointments with the Qatari PM were considered “private,” they were not included in the Court Circular, and several were reportedly undertaken without the presence of the royal aides who typically accompany the prince when meeting with foreign dignitaries.
Amid calls for a full and transparent probe, the Charity Commission aknowledged it was “considering whether there’s a role for the commission to investigate these matters,” a spokesman said.
According to the reports, during one 2015 meeting at Clarence House, which an adviser described as making everyone present “very uncomfortable about the situation,” the prince was handed a bag holding €1 million in €500 notes, the bill discontinued in 2019 and dubbed the “bin Laden” for the apparent frequency with which it was used in funding terrorism and other illegal activity. Royal aides counted the notes and turned them over to Private Coutts bank, the official financial institution of the royal family, where it was placed into PWCF’s accounts.
During another handover, the cash was presented in bags from department store Fortnum and Mason, again raising eyebrows among those concerned with propriety.
There does not seem to be any question about whether the money changed hands, and there is apparently no suggestion that the payments were illegal. The PWCF insisted it verified the donor was a “legitimate and verified counterparty” and that its “auditors signed off on the donation after a specific enquiry during the audit.” There was, the charity’s chairman insisted, “no failure of governance.”
Charitable trustees are supposed to consider whether donations are being made via an “unusual payment mechanism” or come from countries with “weak” financial regulation when deciding whether to accept a gift. They are also supposed to report donations of £25,000 or more if it is an “unusually large one-of donation or a series of smaller donations from a source you cannot identify or check.”
While members of the Royal family are explicitly permitted to accept checks for charity, there is apparently no Charity Commission policy either for or against royals accepting large bags of cash.
While neither the prince nor the sheikh have been accused of breaking the law, the manner in which the gifts were given highlights a certain carelessness in record keeping among the prince’s charity associates, at least one of whom claimed to have no knowledge at all of the sheikh’s gifts.
Another of Prince Charles’ charities, the Prince’s Foundation, is under investigation for accepting cash from Saudi billionaire Dr. Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz who allegedly sought to get honors and citizenship in return for large donations.
Former US Marine General John Allen was pushed out as president and CEO of think tank the Brookings Institution earlier this month over allegations about his own apparent acceptance of Qatari money, specifically a period during which he allegedly acted as an unlicensed foreign lobbyist on behalf of Doha. While Brookings, too, had taken significant sums of money from the Gulf monarchy, it ceased accepting funding from the kingdom in 2019.
The top UN official in Afghanistan appealed on Sunday for greater international support for the country, following a one-day visit to communities hit hard by the devastating earthquake on Wednesday.
The idea of inviting Kiev to join the military bloc will not be discussed at next week’s summit, Madrid has said
NATO has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take part in its upcoming summit in Madrid, but that does not mean that the bloc plans to invite Kiev to join its ranks any time soon, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told the newspaper El Pais on Sunday.
The question of inviting Ukraine to join NATO is not being raised, the minister said, when asked if the military bloc would keep its door open for Kiev to join “in the mid-term.” “It has never been on the table, nor is it now,” he added.
NATO’s eastward expansion was cited by Russia as one of the reasons for launching its offensive against Ukraine in February. The Kremlin demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc.
Earlier this week, Zelensky adviser Aleksey Arestovich stated that Ukraine is “de facto” already a part of NATO, pointing to promises by Western nations to help it “win” the conflict with Russia.
Had Zelensky decided to take part in the upcoming Madrid summit personally, “we would have welcomed him with open arms,” the Spanish defense minister said, adding that the Ukrainian leader would eventually participate in the summit via a video link.
The EU and NATO only want “peace to return to Ukraine and Europe as soon as possible,” Albares noted, adding, however, that all the measures taken by the EU nations and their “transatlantic allies” are aimed at making Moscow’s forces return to Russian territory.
Western nations have been supplying Ukraine with various arms and military equipment almost since the start of the offensive. Moscow has repeatedly warned that arms supplies to Kiev would only prolong the conflict.
When asked if the West should “ask” Zelensky to reach a ceasefire with Russia by making some concessions, Albares said that Ukraine was a sovereign nation and can make decisions for itself.
His words came ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Madrid, at which the military bloc is expected to define its new strategy concept. NATO’s chief, Jens Stoltenberg, earlier said that in its next policy update the bloc would for the first time declare Russia not a partner but a threat.
The Baltic nations and Poland also plan to use the occasion to request a massive NATO buildup on its eastern flank – something Russia has long defined as a threat to its security.
