Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan with President of Russia Vladimir Putin on 10 September 2007.

He succeeded to the posts of Emir of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 3 November 2004, replacing his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had died the day before. He had been acting president since his father became ill prior to his passing.

On 1 December 2005, the President announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected. However, half of the council's members would still need to be appointed by the leaders of the emirates. The elections were set to take place in December 2006.

Khalifa and U.S. President George W. Bush at Abu Dhabi International Airport, 13 January 2008

In 2010, Khalifa was described in a WikiLeaks cable signed by then U.S. ambassador Richard G. Olson as a "distant and uncharismatic personage."[10] On 4 January 2010, the world's tallest man-made structure, originally known as Burj Dubai, was renamed the Burj Khalifa in his honor.[11]

In March 2011, Khalifa sent the United Arab Emirates Air Force to support the military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi, alongside forces from NATO, Qatar, Sweden and Jordan.[12][13]

Khalifa pledged the full support of the UAE to the Bahraini regime in the face of pro-democracy uprising in 2011.[14]

Later that year Khalifa was ranked as the world's fourth-wealthiest monarch, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15 billion.[15] In 2013, he commissioned Azzam, the longest motor yacht ever built at 590 ft (180 m) long, with costs between $400–600 million.[16][17]

In Fall 2011, the Emirates initiated a program to promote "allegiance" to Khalifa and other Emirati leaders.[18] The program continues, and encourages not only Emirati nationals, but residents from any nationality to register their "appreciation, recognition, and loyalty" to the Emirs.[19]

In January 2014, Khalifa suffered a stroke and was reported to have been in a stable condition after undergoing an operation.[20]

Seychellois government records show that since 1995 Khalifa has spent $2 million buying up more than 66 acres of land on the Seychelles' main island of Mahé, where his palace is being built.[21] The Seychelles' government has received large aid packages from the UAE, most notably a $130 million injection that was used in social service and military aid, which funded patrol boats for the Seychelles' antipiracy efforts. In 2008, the UAE came to the indebted Seychelles government's aid, with a $30 million injection.[21]

Khalifa paid $500,000 for the 29.8-acre site of his palace in 2005, according to the sales document. A Seychelles planning authority initially rejected the palace's building plans, a decision overturned by President James Michel's cabinet.[21] A month after the start of construction of the palace, the national utility company warned that the site's plans posed threats to the water supply. Joel Morgan, the Seychelles' minister of the environment, said the government did not tender the land because it wanted it to go to Khalifa. Morgan said "the letter of the law" might not have been followed in the land sale.[21] In February 2010, the sewage system set up by Ascon, the company building the palace, for the site's construction workers overflowed, sending rivers of waste through the region, which are home to more than 8000 residents.[21] Local government agencies and officials from Khalifa's office responded quickly to the problem, sending in technical experts and engineers. Government officials concluded that Ascon ignored health and building codes for their workers, and fined the company $81,000. Ascon blamed the incident on "unpredicted weather conditions".[21] Khalifa's presidential office offered to pay $15 million to replace the water-piping system for the mountainside., and Seychelles' government representatives and residents say Ascon has offered to pay roughly $8,000 to each of the 360 households that were affected by the pollution.[21]

In April 2016, Khalifa was named in the Panama Papers by[22] the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; he reportedly owns luxury properties in London worth more than $1.7 billion via shell companies that Mossack Fonseca set up and administers for him in the British Virgin Islands.[23]

• List of current heads of state and government
• List of rulers of separate Emirates of the United Arab Emirates
• List of the richest royals
• Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
• Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
• Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

• Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed at the Wayback Machine (archived 31 January 2018) Biography of U.A.E. President