V The King

The problem is not really how far is Mars - but whether if it is feasible to have colonies there or not. I mean, I know it's going to be an IG feature now, but if we're going to apply a minimal level of reality and feasibility here, colonies in Mars is not even a remote possibility yet - moon colonies, on the other hand, could be. Moon colonies would be what, a leap of thirty to fifty years - a wee far fetched, but not totally unreasonable. Colonies in Mars? That's beyond centuries, and we haven't gotten any idea of how we could settle the planet.

Viniland will re-submit its application to the Pax Pacifica as a Pacific Holding Nation For Regno de Vinilândua: Vicente d'Albuquerque, Monarch Pasquale Bianchi, Prime Minister Celso Amorim, Minister of External Affairs The Vinilandese Parliament

IMHO, since you can only have either Mars Bases or Moon Bases, we should just make all of those wonders be Moon colonies or something of the sorts - although there could be some differences. Mars settlements are hundreds of years beyond us.

Ehh, I don't know. Still trying to see how I feel about those new features. EDIT: FF, this means I have to buy a Space Program Darn it.

"It'd be interesting if the Pope visited Viniland at some point. We are a largely Catholic country, but for a long time we have not recognized any self-proclaimed "Pope", as multiple ones emerged over time and thus, as of now, no Vinilandese Catholic responds to any religious authority outside of their own land. We'd like to see by ourselves if the new Pope is truly fit to lead every Catholic that is out there in this world."

Viniland's signatures are formally laid on the document:

OOC: Busy, busy week. Sowwy. IC: The Vinilandese Parliament has passed the vote with a solid majority and thus the treaty has been approved by Viniland.

OOC: Mudd, we need to talk. >_> EDIT: Just so there is an IC answer and things do not magically repair itself in the RP: "Vinilandese authorities find the plebiscite results dubious, largely for the district of Anchorage and those around them as we a different outcome was recorded in our part. Tahoan authorities will be privately contacted in order to resolve the issue."

A Vinilandese reporter noted: "The Khmer deserves very little sympathy and plenty of punishment. Killing diplomats for absolutely no reason is not only a very strong Casus Belli, it is also ridiculously ruthless on the part of the offending party and shows that the nation's government has no regards for respect, diplomacy or value of human life. They should be glad that the Dragon Empire did not reply immediately with a full-force attack."

By value, I largely meant "exchange rates in comparison another currencies" - e.g. Japan has the second highest GDP but you trade like a thousand Yen for a few US dollars. Indeed, you can say that the "actual value" of the currency is much higher, but I was speaking in exchange rates terms.

"I'd reckon Pen Island must be a nation where partying hard is some sort of religion, given its name and celebrity-like government. We can respect the country."

Well done.

OOC: I swore to God I posted in here but it doesn't seem like it. IC: "We congratulate Bavaria on their success, and for the looks, it is very likely Bavarian efforts were indeed independent from Viniland's."

"That most certainly does not bode well. Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it be more suitable if you returned to your country, to a safe locality and attempted to coordinate contention efforts? Just so that your people don't feel "abandoned" when there's disease running around."

"Oughtn't to be a problem. My condolences to what may happen to the Empire, though - Malaria is a disease that is difficult to fight already, can't imagine how tough it will be with the rise of a new strain."

"Sure - the Fairmont Palliser Hotel is only a five minutes walk from here, and is a very luxurious hotel, with jacuzzis in suites and top-notch rooms, along with a cosmopolitan availability of food. It'll all be billed to the Ministry of External Affairs, of course."

"Malaria is one tricky disease to cure. Viniland has developed various vaccines against conventional ones, but none of them had very high success rates (OOC: Since IRL, current vaccines are very inefficient and all). However, the development of a new strain greatly concerns us as current vaccines may not work, and thus we must severely restrict the movement of people coming from the Dragon Empire, in the sense that all D.E. citizens must go through screening tests for Malaria, and be quarantined if they are found to have the disease. We will also encourage our own pharmaceutical industry to research a potential cure for the new strain and invite any other interested party to partake in the project."

"Great. We have the document typed up as well as we spoke, and it will be informed to our Speaker of the House - we ought to have a voting on it by tomorrow, while we get some feedback from the population. It was a very pleasurable and productive meeting, Chairman.", spoke the Prime Minister as he got up from his chair, "I'd reckon we're done, for now. May our staff escort you back to the airport, or do you wish to stick around for a longer while?"

OOC: Got some breathing room. IC: "Looks like a very fine treaty, although we would of course have to run it through our Parliament first, as well as hear feedback from the population at large, particularly the private education community. In regards to educational exchanges, it sounds like an interesting idea, although we cannot quite foresee placing domestic fees to students coming from the Dragon Empire. After all, most post-secondary institutions in Viniland receive taxpayer money, and a lot of people would be upset at that. It's something that could be considered, though, after this treaty is signed and our population and government gets to know each other better. We will lay down our signatures, but the treaty may only be enforced when our elected legislature (and yours as well, I'd reckon) approves of it; a recognizable stamp will be sent; our King was informed of this meeting beforehand but he could not make it, but he gave permission for his signature and the royal seal to be used in whatever treaty was signed with the Dragon Empire." Signed for Regno de Vinilândia (Kingdom of Viniland): Vicente d'Albuquerque, Monarch Pasquale Bianchi, Prime Minister Samuel Neto, Secretary-General of External Affairs The Vinilandese Parliament (stamp pending) (OOC: Take the brackets off when it's posted up or whatever)

OOC: FFFF, I keep forgetting. I'll be quite busy up until Wednesday, but I'll try to respond properly before that.

<3 Lynneth It's alright to RP demographics that differ from the RL population, but it'd be fun if the rationale behind the change was explained.

"Depends on your definition of terrorism. I would call suppression of minority cultures, ruthless conquest of lands, waging countless yet pointless and unjustified wars and first-strike nuclear warfare as "state-sponsored terrorism", all of which Greater Nordland gleefully performed in front of everyone, which resulted in the death of millions and caused great sufferings to millions more. I'll choose occasional bombings in a few places as well as one or two planes hitting some building over any of the aforementioned actions. Any day."

No official religion; freedom of worship but the majority of the Vinilandese are Roman Catholics (80%+) with significant Protestant minorities and other faiths (or lack thereof).

"Only low-class and unintelligent nations would ever hire the "Green Flag". Come on, if some world leader wants to stir trouble elsewhere, why would you hire foreign outlaws to do the job when one of the easiest things to do is to create and fund an "intelligence agency" or "special forces", send them into "sabotage" or "liberation" missions and come to the international community with a clean face, with little risk of being backstabed - whereas hiring foreign criminals leads to who knows how many complications. If they do raise any funds from their "services", you know what? That's good. It's less money on the hands of stupid governments."

"Facilitation of travel between our countries, essentially. Things such as relaxing or dropping visa requirements, lessened security checks for flights coming from a signatory's country and the suchlike... maybe even an extradition clause may be useful to add, although it might never be used."