Prince Andrew’s daughter Beatrice has been networking at the highest level in the Middle East amid the mystery surrounding her father’s finances.
The princess has been rubbing shoulders with some of the region’s key power players both in public and behind the scenes.
Her visit comes after the Duke of York faced calls to ‘come clean’ and reveal the secret sources of funding that are bankrolling his stay at Royal Lodge.
The elder daughter of the disgraced prince – who is believed to have won his eviction battle to stay in his Windsor home after finding the funds to foot his security bill of £3 million a year – spoke about artificial intelligence at the Adipec energy conference in Abu Dhabi on November 4.
Now the MoS can reveal that the princess attended a private conference hosted by the UAE minister of industry, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the day before.
Princess Beatrice has been rubbing shoulders with some of the Middle Eastern region’s key power players both in public and behind the scenes
Last week, the Princess attended an energy and AI summit in Abu Dhabi in which some of the region’s most powerful businessmen were in attendance
The Duke of York faced calls to ‘come clean’ and reveal the secret sources of funding that are bankrolling his stay at Royal Lodge
The Duke of York is believed to have won his eviction battle to stay in his Windsor home after finding the funds to foot his security bill of £3 million a year
She was pictured at the event next to Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also the UAE’s president. The Al Nahyan royal family are one of the world’s wealthiest monarchies and believed to own billions of pounds worth of property in London.
Reporters were not allowed at the meeting, which included the CEOs of Shell and EDF, the vice president of Microsoft, and former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, now the UN special envoy for climate action.
US journalist Hadley Gamble, who interviewed Beatrice at the Adipec conference, told this newspaper: ‘There was a general feeling that Beatrice was an unofficial ambassador for the UK.’ She added: ‘Beatrice was quite literally in the inner circle at a gathering of global energy CEOs, top finance guys and policy makers.’
In the last month, Princess Beatrice has made several visits to the region, and younger sister Eugenie has also attended events there.
Beatrice – who is vice president of tech company Afiniti – was in Saudi Arabia last month for the Future Investment Initiative, described by Reuters news agency as ‘an opportunity for attendees to forge relations with some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest companies and its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund’.
