Saki Or Champange?

[Mogar]

France had held one of the longest foreign relationships of any with Japan after the Meiji Restoration, the two states maintaining a strong friendship  for hundreds of years. Naturally this made the newly restored French Empire a reasonable choice for the first step of the Imperium of Japan to expand its foreign policy into europe.

 

Diplomatic Cable

 

To: Sir Claus Ebenfiele de Lorraine sur la Rine

From: Imperium of Japan Foreign Ministry
 

"The Imperium has spent much time repairing itself internally and now looks outwards to work with the new nations of this world to restore all of us to prosperity and security, I would like to come to Orleans to discuss mutually beneficial relations between our two nations.

Regards,

Osamu Saito, Minister of Foreign Affairs

 

[Shave N Haircut]

 

To Sir Osamu Saito of the Sovereign Empire of Japan,

 

France would be delighted to see relations with our long-standing Asian partners reopened, and any envoy sent to speak of renewed cooperation would either be received personally or by L'Imperatrice herself. Any relations with the Japanese Empire would surely bring her Royal Highness no end of joy.

Regards,
Sir Claus Ebenfiele de Lorraine sur la Rine

[Mogar]

Osamu would promptly board a Mitsubishi MU-650 Diamond and made his way to Orleans. It was a long flight but surely one of value. He tried to sleep as much as he could the time difference was going to make things interesting for him.

 

Upon his plane touching down, he was greeted by a diplomatic welcome party and led to a convoy of three cars and a police escort, they snaked through the city to the Council buildings. Osamu was looking out his window the entire time, admiring the french architecture, a vastly different style than the ultra modern style of Tokyo. He pondered that perhaps their nations could learn from each other in this regard, bring the artistic style to Japan and the future style to France.

 

Upon exiting the Vehicle he was greeted by a young diplomat, presumably waiting to lead him to their boss. "Bonjour Sir, I am Mr Saito, though I suspect you knew that." he said warmly, always trying to be light in first encounters with the less experienced diplomatic corp, it tended to keep them relaxed as well.

[Shave N Haircut]

"My name's Jeffrie Brihomme sir, I'll be your liaison for the remainder of your visit, if you would ever like to know anything or ever need anything while you're here, give me a call." he says, handing his charge a card, "That's got my number and the number of emergency services in case something happens that there aren't people immediately available to help you with. Now if you'll follow me please..."

 

He turns and leads him up the stairs to the building proper, "The Prime Minister is waiting for you inside, he's already been alerted of your arrival." He takes them inside and leads them down a few corridors after being ushered through security, taking them to a small conference room, wherein the Prime Minister and a few other French Bureaucrats sat, who stood immediately, the Prime Minister approaching and shaking his counterpart's hand, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person Mr. Saito."

[Mogar]

"Pleasure to meet you Mr Brihomme, I might have to call you up after this to get a tour of this beautiful city of yours." taking the card and sliding it into his wallet, following the man into the building, far more elegant than the sparsely decorated government buildings back home. Entering the conference room he shook the offered hand, "You have a wonderful city here Mr. Ebenfiele, I am happy to finally be here, and it's nice to meet you all as well." he said looking around the room, "If you don't mind prefer to speak plainly, Japan and France have historically held a close friendship, one of the closest and friendliest of any European nation with an Asian one, we hope to resume that friendship and work together with our combined strengths to build a more secure and prosperous future for our children. Our world has only recently returned from total chaos, with the French Empire and the Japanese Imperium together, we believe there is a bright future for both of our nations."

[Shave N Haircut]

"I believe so too my good man." the prime minister says with a smile, "Please, have a seat, we'll talk over a glass of wine." he calls one of his attendants to bring a pair of glasses and a bottle of Red Bordeaux before he looks back, "Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me, I meant to ask you if you drink? I know there are men who prefer to keep business dealings as sober as possible."

[Mogar]

"I would like a glass of wine, there is no reason to not have a glass or two to relax, it is when you are having discussions with Russians you have to be careful, one glass can turn into ten and you will forget what you were even supposed to negotiate over." he said with a laugh, sitting down in the empty chair.

[Shave N Haircut]

"Excellent, good man." Ebenfiele laughs and personally pours his counterpart a glass, "It's the best we have, quite the old vint, though they never bother telling me the year anymore because they're afraid I might collect it instead of actually drinking any. We've not had much dealing with the Russians lately, though they're reestablishing embassies soon I believe." he waves his arm a little vaguely, "Some of them anyways. Now, to business." He holds his glass high for a toast.

[Mogar]

Osamu raised his glass in turn, "To business." he repeated, taking a sip of the wine, "First on our agenda is returning the trade between each other to a solid state once more, Japan would be willing to remove all tariffs on French goods, for the same in kind. As for other subjects, We would contemplate ensuring the defend of both of our nations, In the Pacific we are in a secure position as the political leader of Asia, and a treaty between us would ensure France as a European leader for years to come, providing both of our nations with security from outside aggressors, recent turmoil in Europe prompted Her Imperial Majesty to suggest this to me just before I had left Japan, I consider an agreement of this scale to be a powerful statement by both of our nations to the rest of the world, the first allies on separate continents in this new world."

[Shave N Haircut]

"Well, we're both capable of great projections of power, so I suppose that it's entirely possible for us to be very close and effective allies. I don't think that the minister of finance would terribly mind a treaty giving your nation preferential import treatment." he says, sipping a little in consideration, "I feel obligated to tell you that we're preparing to send a fleet to French Polynesia in order to resecure it for our Empire."

[Mogar]

"Security of the Pacific is our largest priority as a military power in the region, we would have no issues with such a move" he said, looking at a map of the region. "I would like to note these has been some fighting as of late between Hawaii and the Philippines, neither nation has the strength to cause widespread chaos in the area but it is troubling nonetheless. We have been monitoring it carefully and have our fleet in the region to ensure it doesn't get out of hand, Should Hawaii make a threatening move against your fleet we will ensure they do not get a second chance to do so."

[Shave N Haircut]

"I appreciate your understanding of the situation Mister Saito." he says, taking another drink, "So, are we looking at mutual defense or are we going to be intertwining our strategies in the pacific theatre for better cooperation and make this a complete entente? I know that our highest Admirals would be delighted to do drills with your own leaders. I imagine that neither the Filipinos or the Hawaiians will be thrilled with the renewal of our presence in the South Pacific."

[Mogar]

Osamu laughed "I doubt the Hawaiians are in a position to stand against the might of the Imperial fleet, and any words they say will not harm our people's opinions. The Filipinos are intelligent enough to leave well enough, Japan has allowed them freedom to expand into important strategic waters without a fight, I am certain they will grant us the same respect. For not I think an optional aggression clause should be more than enough, it will allow either of us the option to defend our own interests in whatever theaters we may find ourselves fighting in." Looking over the map again he takes a healthy sip of his own glass, "Perhaps Hawaii will become the first cooperation of our pact, If the Philippines and Hawaii cannot come to a peaceful resolution our military will have find a resolution that restores peace to the Pacific." he said while reaching into his briefcase, he had four prewritten treaties, prepared for all potential outcomes of this meeting.

 

He passed it to his counterpart "This is just a rough draft I was working on in hopes of an ideal meeting, we can easily make any changes you may require."

 

Economic and Military Cooperation Pact between the Third French Empire and Imperium Of Japan

 

The parties; recognizing the mutual friendship and trust placed in each other, resolving to aid each other in the fulfillment of goals, and believing that is in the interests of both parties to enhance cooperation, have agreed as follows:

 

Article 1

No barrier shall exist, excluding the specific outlined laws of one signatory, that impede free trade between France and Japan. Should a situation arise in which goods are not allowed inside a signatory's borders for whatever reason, it is that signatory's duty to inform the other so that the flow of these illicit goods can stop.

 

Article 2

Both France and Japan pledge a state of constant and continuous non-aggression between each other. Neither nation will conduct espionage, invade, blockade, embargo, share false intelligence, withhold important intelligence or otherwise harm the other.

 

Article 3

In the event either party comes under attack, the other signatory has the duty to join in defense of that nation.

 

Article 4

In the event either party must use their military aggressively against a third party, the other signatory has the right to militarily, economically, or political assist them.

 

Article 5

The French Empire and The Imperium of Japan will allow the others military access to Naval and Air bases in their respective territories to further the interests of both nations.

 

Article 6

If for any reason the signatories feel this agreement is not in their best interests, there must be a warning notice of 6 months prior to cancellation, as well as a formal meeting between the Foreign Affairs Leadership of the signatories in order to reconcile any differences. After this warning period, the treaty is then null and void.

 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized thereto by the collective peoples, have signed the present convention,

 

For Third French Empire:

 

For Imperium of Japan:

[Shave N Haircut]

"I can see nothing that I dislike about this deal." Ebenfiele says with an approving nod and a congenial smile, "I can see nothing which could inconvenience us even, in any serious regard." he grabs a pen from a nearby basket and reviews the treaty a few more times to make sure that there wasn't any fine print which would place France in a position that they couldn't uphold the treaty, "Shall I sign it now or would you prefer that I called the media for it to be made into a public spectacle?" he asks, leaning over his spot on the treaty and hovering his pen just above the spot.

[Mogar]

"We don't require a media gala, I figure we can sign now and then announce at the same time."

[Shave N Haircut]

The Prime Minister signs the paper, "That sounds reasonable." he hands the pen to his Japanese counterpart with a grin, "It's a pleasure doing business with you."

[Mogar]

He raises his glass again, "To Business!" he said again returning the grin.