Invitation to Artica

[Triyun]

[b]To:[/b] Senior Leadership of Arctica
[b]From:[/b] Office of Executor Ding, SC People's Liberation Army
[b]Subject:[/b] Request for a Meeting

[b]Body:[/b]

The United Federation of the East would like to request a meeting with Arctica about opening up diplomatic relations between us. Our Indian Ocean units are anticipated to become a larger part of the UFEs overall force. As such we wish to have closer relations with fellow members of the Indian Ocean Community. We would like to invite your leadership to make the short trip to meet with our Executor in our base at Zanzibar, Rebel Army.

We eagerly await your presence.

[Vedran]

[quote]To: Executor Ding
From: Vedran, Sovereign of Arctica

Executor,

We welcome dialogue from other governments, and accept your offer for a conference. Furthermore, we are thankful for the convenient choice of venue and hope that this does not inconvenience you. We will set a date to meet with you.

Visiting will be myself, Foreign Minister Ramiaramanana, and staff.

Sincerely,

Vedran, Sovereign of Arctica[/quote]

A few days after the message was received, the Sovereign made time in his schedule for a full day, and just in case the meeting took longer, had his assistant inform the following day's appointments that they may be canceled if he was occupied for longer than expected.

Within a few days, the Sovereign's aircraft, [i]Trident One[/i], arrived at the designated airport. Vedran exited first, flanked by six guards. They were followed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and a less obtrusive guard in a simple business suit, finally followed by their staff: a smallish group of assistants and experts, some of them carrying briefcases or diplomatic bags with laptops and paper files inside them.

A reserve team stayed behind in the plane, as was standard procedure.

[Triyun]

Executor Ding was awaiting on the runway of the base in his light green uniform of the PLA Tropical Forces. An Amphibious Forces honor guard was flanking the Executor on either side of him. Ding extended a hand. "Sovereign Vedran, thank you for meeting us on such short notice. Please come in side." he said motioning him to enter into the pre-fabricated building on the runway.

"Our operations are still fairly new in the region, so I apologize for the rather modest setting of our meeting." he said gesturing for the Vedran delegation to take a seat.

"So right to business I suppose, I would first like to know how Arctica views our nation. We ourselves have had little interaction in this part of the world and have not formed many opinions of our own, other than friendship with Novak."

[Vedran]

Vedran shook the Executor's hand and followed him into the prefab building, having a seat across from him. The Foreign Minister and their staff joined them. "Ah, it is no problem. I have gotten used to more...luxurious buildings in recent years. Back in Arctica...before the move to Africa that is, when we still lived in the north; where it wasn't feasible to conquer the harsh environment with technology, these steel and aluminium structures were built. It reminds me of my early days."

"But on to why we are here. I suppose it is best to be honest. Many Arcticans view your government as hegemonists, and I am not necessarily opposed to their opinion. Historically, it has been difficult to keep China united, from the imperial dynasties to the warlord era. Governments that succeed in doing this have characteristically been required to place law and order before civil liberties. Conversely, much of the Arctican population places individual freedoms before other things. For example, when fascist Italy took over Somalia, we opposed their administrations because, despite improving the economic health of the region, their fascist ideology involved keeping people and their activities tightly controlled.

Given this view, we do not look upon the UFE with a very favorable eye, but as our history with Transvaal shows, ideological differences will not necessarily hinder relations; only, our government is understandably hesitant to enter into any sort of agreement which requires a commitment that the heart of our nation is not prepared for, such as anything military.

Other than that, Executor, I am willing to listen to any proposal you may have."

[Triyun]

"It would be fair to characterize our law and order policies internally as being authoritarian, but we aren't really interested in exporting the model to other nations. We maintain a policy of non-interference with other nations domestically policies unless they practice slavery or some sort of systemic targeting of an ethnic group. We aren't really interested in violence, oppression, or brutality for their own sake.

Anyways what I would like to propose is an agreement between us which includes a non-aggression pact, but also I've been instructed to seek the purchase of the northern most Seychelle, Bird Island as a midway point between our operations here on Zanzibar and in Oman. We'd use this as a forward operating and sensor base. Of course to acquire such a piece of territory, the Federation is prepared to offer significant financial compensation." Ding replied.

[Vedran]

One of the staff retrieved his laptop and looked at the information the Ministry had on Bird Island. He passed the computer to the Minister, who examined it briefly. "It has an airstrip, a weather station, a natural habitat for the eponymous birds, and some sea turtles, as well as a hotel. Much the same as many of our islands in the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Mozambique, except for the hotel." Alain looked at some aerial photos. "The hotel looks rather small, no more than a few tiny buildings. They would need to be compensated a fair price for eminent domain, which by the looks of it would not be very much...as for the island itself, I doubt it would set you back very much. It is a strategic point to place a weather monitoring station, as well as for other purposes. I can see why it is attractive.

Still, we have other stations on the mainland and weather data can always be shared." He smirked. "We can afford to part with it." One of the experts took a look at the data and made an estimate for cost. It wasn't very expensive.

Vedran nodded at his Foreign Minister, satisfied. "As for nonaggression...we are willing to sign such a pact."