Nordlandic Confederacy Conference

[Malatose]

**Berlin**

After the formation of the Nordlandic Confederacy, Berlin began to prepare for the upcoming conference of the 1st Nordlandic General Council. All over Berlin, the state flags, of the member states, were drapped over various buildings. One such example of this were the state flags hung under the the Arch Of Triumph, which created a beautiful effect, as the wind swept under them. Other preparations were also in place. At the New Reich Airport, an entire terminal was closed to the public, with only state officials from the countries attending the meeting being allowed to go through.

After leaving the Airport, the men would be driven down the massive central three-mile long boulevard known as the Avenue of Victory. On each side of the road, would be hundreds of German honor guards, standing at attention as the officials drove through. The meeting itself was to be held at the the Grosser Platz, inside of the Reich Kaiser Palace. A special room constructed inside of the Reich Kaiser Palace would be used for discussions and only open to members of the Nordlandic Confederacy.

With preperations in place, the Kaiser awaited the arrival of the state officials.

[Triyun]

The CSSR Foreign Minister's plane would land on the air strip. It was a simple military cargo plane nothing fancy or flashy, they did not wish to attract attention, nor did they wish to waste on frivilous expenses.

[Bacharth]

Keiser Magnus and Supreme Commander Oppøre rode in the back of a dark red explorer driving down the avenue. "And to think, Norsvea bombed and tried to destroy this city. It's a real shame. Such a beautiful city."

"Yes. Never would have happened if I was in control of the military." The attempt on Oppøre's life had left his face and neck horribly scarred. His hair covered his face now to hide a large burn that left much of his skull exposed. An eyepatch had covered his left eye, as it no longer existed. Yes, Kraftig was now much less of the man he used to be physically. Mentally, he had been improved.

"You will get your retribution. I've sent DIO to track down and arrest Erik, and Forsvare will be easy to find. He is still a general. I have not yet announced your return."

"Good. I expected it from Erik, but Gunnar was my friend."

Once they had arrived at the Platz, Oppøre and Magnus were wearing uniforms that looked strangely like the German uniforms, except with a crimson and tan stripe running across the left shoulder. Niklas walked with the air of a quiet, strong type. He never talked much, just smoked a cigar-like object with northern Norsvean cannabis instead of tobacco.

[Kaiser Martens]

Freja of the Aesir, Leader of Foreign Affairs arrived by Fighter Aircraft, with two other Fighter Escorts. Indeed, she had not arrived on a Civilian Aircraft...

The beautiful Nordlandic woman climbs down from her Fighter and stretches her arms lightly, smiling.

"Berlin sure is pretty this time of the year..."

She fixes the neck part of her uniform carefully and then proceeds, entering a transport which is to take her to the proper meeting area.

[The Confederation]

Kaiser Tanzband stepped down from the Concorde and smelled the fresh Berlin morning air. He was home.

He wore his military uniform, a rare sight outside of his home--let alone a foreign nation, but he felt that it was the most appropriate for the tone of the meeting and of the organization he had just joined.

He looked back on the days when Nordland ruled Europe--when the Nordic people did not have to be ashamed of their lineage or their heritage. The Nordic people were reborn.

Two escorts followed behind him. A nervous looking man in his early 30s carried a book of Nordlandic poetry. It seemed like he was being forcefully lead along by a young Nordic woman with flowing blond hair--she had a sense of power about her that could never be matched.

The exiles of a war long over were home.

[Mergerberger II]

Prime Minister Alexander walked into the conference room, and walked up to the podium where he was to open the first Conference for the Nordlandic Confederacy. He spoke quickly.

"Let us begin, gentlemen."

"First I would like to thank you all for coming. What shall be the first order of business?"

[Kaiser Martens]

"The first order of business...let us see. I have brought with me a few issues..."

"One is that we're looking for a Technological Pact. Our base technology is insufficient, we already are boosted by the Prussians but our Ministers have noticed that by having such a trade with the Easternmost Ones, we will be able to further our efficiency and development."

"Another issue is that we're all using different currencies with different values. Since we're going to be interacting economically quite a bit, without mentioning turist, I would like to propose for our currencies to adopt the same value so they can be used interchangeably through our lands, for simplicity."

"Lastly, I would propose to get together specialists of each nation to redesign our Defense Forces using the highest amount of development and technology possible, for a new generation. This will involve eventually using in all areas the same equipment and ammo, this will in turn make it a lot easier to fight wars together when we eventually must."

"I must also note that public reception to our alliance is remarkably favorable, more than I expected."

[Malatose]

"We'd have to agree on the Technological Pact idea. The only way we will prosper is if we are all on the same level. You could say its the same militarily. It'd be totally useless for us to conduct a war with a member state fifteen years behind the enemy, so to speak."

"On the issue of national defense, the redesigning of our National Defense Forces would be an immense effort. It'd also cost us billions, especially since you'd have to retrain soldiers and mechanics for the new equipment. I think we should take a slower approach and continue to use our current Defense Forces. However, member nations, who excel in certain fields, should export their equipment to member states at a 50% discount or even free. For example, our aerospace, ground and naval industries have introduced some impressive designs. We'd be more than welcome to let you use our blueprints to construct them."

Edited March 12, 2009 by Malatose

[Bacharth]

"I think we could agree on all terms, but I must address Germany's issue. This would be a problem for Norsvea too. Although we do more exports than imports, I'm afraid running a green infrastructure costs us quite a bit of money. Which, brings us to our next point. We can export our knowledge of alternative fuels, so that in the event of an oil blockade, our tanks and planes can keep running with no detriment to the performance."

[Kaiser Martens]

"That would be alright. Us punctually have virtually no Airforce and Navy, our R&D budget focuses on Land Forces. We would certainly do with being able to have some foreign factories build aircraft for us to use, for example. If we produced our own, they'd be largely insufficient. Land forces are however, appropiate. We don't necessarily have to replace all we have right now, but rather, as we gradually move on, let us make sure we adopt designs which at least use the same ammo, in general. This can take years if it must."

[Mergerberger II]

"I would agree on all points other than that of National Defence, as my comrade in Germany has already stated. The Union and its predecessors have spent billions upon billions designing our military and purchasing technologies from the United Francoist Empire, and in maintaining the factories built for us by them in our lands. Redesigning would mean the loss of much money for purposes which can be easily avoided.

Technologically, I would agree. We ought to share our technology with one another, and there is no doubt in my mind about that.

Universal Currency is something that the Union and is predecessors have pushed for. This would be a great step towards greater unity in Europe and in the Confederacy."

[Triyun]

Technology sharing will not be an issue, however, we propose that the war factories of the UFE be turned over to Soviet Control. We can then begin reverse engineering an improving on those technologies.

[Malatose]

The Reich has possession of most of the UFE's military technology, from when the UFE's government granted us the blueprints and permission to built their technology, to strengthen our defense forces at the time. We could easily send you these blueprints, so you can begin production at once.

[Kaiser Martens]

"Sounds excellent. We will sent some of our Specialists to help with all the technology related issues. We have the minds, just not the money or facilities to research, so at least we can use them to help us speed this up. I do not care whether if we have an actual common currency or all our currencies are worth the same, I'll support it either way simply because it is more practical to do so."

[Triyun]

Very well this sounds acceptable, we would still like to have access to those warfactories to help figure out the production speed stages also.

[Kaiser Martens]

"Good. Perfect. We'll mobilize our resources accordingly. One last thing, shall we have a common currency or simply continue to have different ones, under the same value? I do not mind either way, but we do need to make that call."

[Malatose]

The process of establishing a single currency would be a difficult task, especially considering all of our currency has different value. We could look into it and make it one of our main goals, but I don't think it would be beneficial to jump right into it.

[Kaiser Martens]

"As you wish. At least having the same value would make it better on the tourists and exchanges, but I don't feel strongly on this subject."

[Malatose]

Adding fixed exchange rates for tourist is a good idea. But, in regards to adopting one currency, we should take it slow.

[Bacharth]

We would agree to it, but it would be very, very difficult, as the Norsvean Mark is backed by a gold standard.

[Kaiser Martens]

"Fixed exchange rates would be definately good enough."

[Mergerberger II]

The Union would be most willing to allow the CSSR to use UFE-produced factories within the Union to help to manufacture goods for all of the Nordlandic Confederacy. The CSSR most certainly has the technology available to run these factories, and with their advancements since the time the UFE produced them originally, I believe we can all expect improvements to Francoist technology.

[Triyun]

"Thank you comrade." the Foreign Minister said bowing. Tapping on his datapad he sent orders to the engineering bureaus in the CSSR to head to the WEU to begin studying the warfactories, so similar ones could be built, as well as ensure their continued operations.

"We will be working on adapting these technologies for access to the entire Nordlandic Confederacy. We wonder whether or not the militaries of the Confederacy wish to standardize ammunition sizes and communications equipment so that we can synchronize better."

[Malatose]

"Synchronizing communications equipment would be an easy task. The synchronization of military wouldn't. As I stated earlier, it'd cost us billions in the long-run, and we really don't see the point in that."

[Mergerberger II]

"Thank you comrade." the Foreign Minister said bowing. Tapping on his datapad he sent orders to the engineering bureaus in the CSSR to head to the WEU to begin studying the warfactories, so similar ones could be built, as well as ensure their continued operations.

"We will be working on adapting these technologies for access to the entire Nordlandic Confederacy. We wonder whether or not the militaries of the Confederacy wish to standardize ammunition sizes and communications equipment so that we can synchronize better."

"Synchronizing communications equipment would be an easy task. The synchronization of military wouldn't. As I stated earlier, it'd cost us billions in the long-run, and we really don't see the point in that."

I think that we could begin building something with the same standards across the board. Germany and ourselves use the same size of ammunition already, I believe, as a result of our mutual participation in the purchase of military weaponry from the UFE, as well as the use of their factories and whatnot. Because Nordheim is a new nation, and the CSSR is using UFE factories within the Union, synchronisation with them should not be an issue.