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Queen cancels state visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi

The Queen has cancelled her forthcoming spring tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi because of an overburdened work schedule, Buckingham Palace said yesterday.
She was due to embark next month on a five-day state visit with the Duke of Edinburgh, who has recently cancelled several engagements because of a back injury. The Palace strenuously denied, however, that the decision was connected to the Duke’s health.
Unusually, the destination had still not been disclosed yesterday, even though the trip was only six weeks away.
However, The Times has learnt that the spring tour was due to have been to the Gulf states and would have included visits to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The Palace said that it was the state visit to Britain by President Calderón of Mexico — who arrives three days after the Queen was due to return from the Middle East — and the gathering in London the same week of G20 leaders, including President Obama, that has placed undue strain on the Queen’s diary.
It is the first time in recent memory that a state visit has been cancelled for reasons other than war or terrorism.
The Queen places great weight on her overseas tours and they were only called off in 2001 because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and in 2003 because of the looming war in Iraq.
“We've never had a G20 summit in the middle of a state visit before,” the Palace said. “We just could not deliver both. We would be involved in G20 - there are 20 delegations, and we would be involved in hosting. It is a huge logistical ask.”
It is the latest in a line of setbacks for Dubai. When the market collapsed, its once-booming economy started to slow. Property and financial companies have made thousands of workers redundant and banks have tightened lending. Construction companies have delayed or cancelled projects and tourism is down.
The Times revealed yesterday that many expatriates are abandoning their cars outside Dubai's international airport and fleeing home rather than risk jail for defaulting on loans. Police have found more than 3,000 cars, mainly Mercedes and large 4x4s, at the airport in recent months.
While the Palace is adamant that there is “no big conspiracy”, the cancellation of the trip has caused raised eyebrows. “It does not stack up to me,” a former senior insider said. “These things are very carefully constructed. There would be a huge amount of unwinding to do. Plans would have been quite far advanced already.”
Two weeks ago the Palace sent out e-mails to royal correspondents informing them of the dates of the tour, March 23-27, and asking which organisations would be likely to send journalists to cover it.
For anyone who has had experience of how the Palace conducts its affairs, the idea that something as well planned as a state visit should be cancelled at short notice because of a diary clash, particularly one that could have been seen well in advance, may be seen to strain credibility.
The cancellation will have involved months of preparatory work involving Palace officials, local embassy staff and royalty protection squad officers go to waste. Officials would have gone on reconnaissance visits, while the embassy would have been charged with helping the host country to draw up an acceptable itinerary. In the weeks before the trip every destination - every palace, every mosque, every museum - would have had to be checked for security by the Queen's police bodyguards.
In addition, the Palace has run the risk of causing offence to its hosts. The fact that it did not name the destinations may mitigate the embarrassment felt by the rulers of Dubai - Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, a major racehorse owner who has met the Queen on several occasions - and Abu Dhabi - Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan - but now there will be considerable loss of face.
The Queen's tours are always at the behest of the Foreign Office and this tour would have followed closely on the heels of Gordon Brown's trip to the Gulf in November to lobby the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council for extra IMF funds.
According to the Palace, the fact that the destination of the spring tour was not announced in last autumn's Queen's Speech was a clue that even then they were aware of the looming diary congestion.
Anyone looking for an alternative explanation to the official line is limited for choice. The destinations are not thought to pose security concerns; which would seem to leave the health of Prince Philip, 87, who cancelled his third engagement in eight days this week after pulling a muscle in his back while carriage driving.
“I am sure that he is pleased that he will not have to fly somewhere,” a spokeswoman said. “But that's not the reason why. We are not in the business of covering up anything about his health and never have been. He has been told to rest his back for a couple of months. He has cut down on engagements, but he is still doing them.”


Original Article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article5679715.ece