The Lion and the Viking

[Zoot Zoot]

When Prime Minister Cameron arrived in Copenhagen, he would be granted the full honor's of a visiting head of state including a heavily armoured and protected convoy of vehicles from the airport to King Frederik's enclosure in central Copenhagen by the river.  The large wooden gates opened to allow the convoy to enter the enclosure, the wall surrounding the Royal Longhouse was manned by its usual contingent of the Royal Life Guards Regiment in full ceremonial uniform. If the Prime Minister looked closely enough at the higher buildings surrounding the enclosure, all of which were military owned, he would see sharpshooters and other soldiers ensuring the enclosure was secure for the meeting.

 

After being escorted inside and shown to the Kings meeting room, Frederik would enter in his simple suit and offer his hand to the Briton.

 

"Greetings Prime Minister, welcome to Copenhagen, I trust your journey was comfortable" he said warmly as he shook his hand and moved to his seat.

 

"Please help yourself to refreshments, we have alcoholic beverages, hot drinks, cold drinks and a small buffet of sandwiches to stave off any hunger under the banquet this evening in your honor." he continued as he pulled out a cigar and adjusted the small fan on his desk to blow the smoke out of the window behind him and not onto the Prime Minister.

 

"May I personally congratulate you on a successful bid for Independence for Great Britain and I wish you and your administration the best of luck for the coming years. Now if there is anything you wish to discuss before I begin, please feel free Prime Minister".

[Scofield]

Prime Minister Cameron would select a lager as he took a seat.

"Thank you for your greetings. The people of Great Britain have persevered through uncertain times in the last days of the previous regime, and we look forward to participating in the world community of nations once again. I have come here in the interests of establishing a cooperative relationship between our nations. In your invitation, you mentioned that you wanted to discuss oil exploration rights in the North Sea. What do you have in mind?"

[Zoot Zoot]

Prime Minister Cameron would select a lager as he took a seat.

"Thank you for your greetings. The people of Great Britain have persevered through uncertain times in the last days of the previous regime, and we look forward to participating in the world community of nations once again. I have come here in the interests of establishing a cooperative relationship between our nations. In your invitation, you mentioned that you wanted to discuss oil exploration rights in the North Sea. What do you have in mind?"

"Indeed Prime Minister, in the early days of this nation, the Norwegians indicated that they would attempt to claim ownership of the fields, something that never came to fruition after I made it a key part of the Royal Navy's mission to protect the Norse claims on the oil. Historically, the North Sea fields have been claimed entirely by Britain and its successor states and to reasonable degree's of success, have been able to enforce the claims. my primary objective to begin with Prime Minister is to assure you that such a claim cannot be declared due to existing claims and exploration which is ongoing in the region by not only the Norse, but by the Prussians and the Norwegians. I want to ensure that Britain gets its fair share and if required, gets the correct hardware and technical resources to conduct its own exploration and drilling operations." he finished, well aware that it was quite a lot to take in and in places did not sound too polite.

 

"Please understand that if I sound impolite, it is not intentional, I am far used to conversing in German and High Norse, English is not one of my greatest languages. In short, I want you to know that the Norse people want to ensure Britain gets its fair share of its national resource without infringing or impeding on existing exploration by neighboring countries." he finished, smiling awkwardly.

[Scofield]

Cameron didn't know whether to be offended or not by the Norse leader's insinuation. Maintaining a friendly expression, he spoke. "Let me assure you that Britain has no intentions of making any claims on existing Norse, Norwegian, and Prussian claims in the North Sea, except that of its own within the British EEZ. We may have dominated the North Sea in the past, but this is not the case anymore; we are interested in regional and international cooperation in regards to the issue at hand. We have, and continue to, maintain our claims over the oil and gas fields, as well control and operation of oil platforms, within British territorial waters and EEZ for some time. I'll provide a map of British claims in the North Sea for your perusal."

Cameron nodded at a nearby aide, who retrieved a map from a briefcase and passed it on to the Norse leader.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Scofield

[Zoot Zoot]

"Prime Minister, that map indicates that your claim is the entire North Sea oil reserve... unless of course the map is missing a legend to indicate what exactly your claims are?" responded Frederik, looking slightly confused.

[Scofield]

"No, this map does not illustrate the entire North Sea oil and gas reserves, and neither should it be construed as a British claim on the entire North Sea reserves. There is a plethora of reserves which are not shown on the map. This map only shows parts of the reserves which have been within the British EEZ, to my best understanding. Basically most (but not all) of the gas fields nearest the English coast, and some (but not all) oil fields nearest Scotland and the Shetland Islands are within the British claims. This is the information that I have received, based on the data indexed by the previous Britannia and Camulodunum Department of Energy and Climate Change. However, for the purpose of clarification, and in the interests of avoiding the potential overlapping of North Sea claims, I would like to request a map precisely delineating Norse, Prussian, and Norweigan claims, so we can be clear on this matter. If you do have one, this would be appreciated."

[Zoot Zoot]

"Apologies for the age of the maps, my cartographers have yet to update the national boundaries and such for more recent changes in Europe's political backdrop."

 

[Scofield]

"These maps seem to match our predecessors' data, and British claims within its EEZ. Nevertheless, thank you for providing these maps. Although Europe has undergone changes since our maps were last updated, our maps have at least raised our awareness of the tentative extent of existing claims in the North Sea. As I have stated earlier, Britain will respect existing North Sea claims, and will cooperate with North Sea powers in regards to oil exploration. With that said, I would suggest that both our governments bring our maps up to date as soon as possible, preferably with consultation with the Prussians and Norwegians, as to avoid further ambiguity in the near-future."

[Zoot Zoot]

"As I am sure you may have noticed, but the Norwegians seem to have extended their claim to 70% of the NSO's unless I was mistaken reading morning

security briefing, not only that but we have tried to bring Norway to the table before Prime Minister and we just don't get responses." said Frederik sadly.

 

"So now that the main topic at hand has been dealt with for the immediate future, until we can get Norway around the table that is, is there anything else you wish to discuss? Clean energy for example, within the Norse Kingdom is a heavily funded and invested project and we estimate that in less than another five years, we will have a 100% clean and renewable energy source."

[Scofield]

"We shouldn't worry about that. It doesn't matter whether the Norwegians claim 70 percent or even 100 percent of the North Sea reserves, ultimately it is all rhetoric. If they actually try to enforce their excessive claims, they not only risk subverting existing North Sea claims and violating our right to sovereignty, but also risk setting off a potential crisis in Europe, which is not something we need or want. One thing for sure is that Britain will continue to uphold its existing claims, to operate its oil/gas platforms within its territorial waters and EEZ, and to defend them if necessary, and nothing else. I am sure your government, and the Prussian government, would do the same."

Cameron drained the rest of his lager, and promptly refilled his glass.

"As for renewable energy, my predecessors actually took a major initiative to increase Britain's renewable energy production capabilities. The Britannia government established reduction targets for carbon emissions, and began the process of promoting renewable electricity power through domestic initiatives such as the Renewables Obligation (RO) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), and various financial incentives. Although Britannia unfortunately lapsed into inactivity and collapsed, the Camulodunum government continued the efforts, actually increasing the percent of the country's electricity from renewable sources in a couple of years. My administration will continue these efforts, of course, and will focus on expanding Britain's wind, solar, biofuel and hydroelectric power capacities, as well as increasing research into wave and tidal power as well."

Edited November 15, 2013 by Scofield

[Zoot Zoot]

"It is good to know that another European state is dedicated to clean energy goals. Us Norse have progressed massively in our clean energy goals and now less  than one quarter of our nations power needs are supplied by fossil fuels and engineers are presently looking towards creating a cheap and reliable hybrid class of vehicles for not only small vehicles, but overland haulage vehicles. Not only that, but Prussia and ourselves are researching and developing cold fusion technology, admittedly, we are footing most of the bill until we hit a breakthrough, at which point I believe Prussia will put more money into the project to push it towards completion. Would you be interested in joining this research and development program? If successful, it would revolutionize the energy sector and the environment."

 

"Another thing which comes to mind about the North Sea by the way before we go too far off track is fishing quotas. Whilst obviously, I will respect any policies regarding the British EEZ, but Prussia and ourselves are committed to ensure that overfishing is punished most severely in our respective countries and strict quotas must be adhered to to ensure the survival of the North Sea marine life and fish populations. Would Britain be willing to enter this agreement as well?"

[Scofield]

"It would be a pleasure to join with you and Prussia in the development of renewable energy research and development, the reduction of overfishing, and the conservation and preservation of North Sea marine life. If you'd like, we can provide some funding and technical expertise to assist you and Prussia in the renewable energy R&D program. As for overfishing, there is a bill going through Parliament that would not only impose stricter fishing quotas and harsher penalties for violators, but authorize funding for greater monitoring technologies and programs. Britain would gladly work together with you and Prussia in this matter."

[Zoot Zoot]

"It would be a pleasure to join with you and Prussia in the development of renewable energy research and development, the reduction of overfishing, and the conservation and preservation of North Sea marine life. If you'd like, we can provide some funding and technical expertise to assist you and Prussia in the renewable energy R&D program. As for overfishing, there is a bill going through Parliament that would not only impose stricter fishing quotas and harsher penalties for violators, but authorize funding for greater monitoring technologies and programs. Britain would gladly work together with you and Prussia in this matter."

"Outstanding" he responded, filling his own glass with cider.

"Are there any pressing issues that you wish to discuss yourself?"

[Scofield]

Cameron shook his head as he finished his lager. "I think we have covered everything in regards to the issues at hand. As this meeting have been positive and productive, may I suggest a non-aggression pact? This would allow our nations to work and cooperate together, and to periodically evaluate our relations accordingly. What are your thoughts?"

[Zoot Zoot]

"That sounds like an excellent idea, it is similar to our agreement with Prussia. How about an annual review of the treaty?"

[Scofield]

"An annual review sounds good. It allows us to evaluate the state of British-Norse relations, and to decide whether (or not) an upgrade would be in both our countries' interests."