Under the Attican sun

[king of cochin]

[quote]From:
The Kingdom of Cochin

To:
The Athenian Federation

Greetings,
Separated though we are by continents our nations have often interacted at several instances, the latest one being during the War in South West Africa. In the light of the cooperation and amiability existing between our nations of which the above mentioned conflict is a good example, we are interested in improving our diplomatic relations with Athenian Federation.

We hope that you would accept a special emissary from us to discuss certain matters which may be of mutual benefits to both our nation.

Yours Sincerely,

HH Kerala Varma,
The King of Cochin[/quote]

[Centurius]

[quote]From: The Office of the Empress of the Athenian Federation
To: The King of the Kingdom of Cochin

Your highness,

It would please me and my state to welcome a special envoy from the Kingdom of Cochin to discuss potential future relations between our states. Your envoy is welcome in Athens and we hope to hear from him soon.

Yours sincerely,
Her Imperial Highness Ariadne Notaras[/quote]

[king of cochin]

The King's Guards Fleet Gulfstream 650 would arrive at Athens on a hot sunny day after an extremely long flight. KP Varma, the Minister of External Affairs of the Kingdom of Cochin would arrive in the capital of Athenian Federation as the plenipotentiary representative of the King of Cochin. Wearing a light suit taking note of the sunny weather in Athens KP Varma would await the Athenian officials to conduct him to Office of the Empress of the Athenian Federation.

[Centurius]

The Minister would be welcomed by his equal from the Federation, the Magistrate of Foreign Affairs Jean-Luc Picard awaited him.

"Welcome to the Athenian Federation, if you will come with me we will bring you to the office of her Imperial highness."

[king of cochin]

KP Varma would follow Mr. Picard and on meeting with the Empress of the Athenian Federation, Her Imperial Highness Ariadne Notaras, would bow before her and speak thus, "Greetings Your Excellency and thank you for granting this audience.

As His Highness Kerala Varma already mentioned in the covering letter, the Kingdom of Cochin is greatly interested in improving the diplomatic relationships with Athenian Federation. We hope to enter into an alliance with you, an alliance that would help each other extend our nations' defense capabilities and prosperity.

While our nations have not always been natural allies, occasionally even being on opposing sides of brewing hostilities, in todays changed geopolitical atmosphere where past grievances have been redressed and years of hostility being mended to bring upon the start of true alliance, we find no reason why our nations should not enter into an alliance either. Hitherto Kingdom of Cochin had been principally an Indian Ocean nation, with our power projection and economic and political interests confined to our immediate domains, but now we see no reason why we should not aspire to be a truly global power with global reaches. Our aims in this strategy is not expansion of land or establishment of colonies but secure expansion of market reach and creation of a diplomatic fabric of alliances that has the possibility of greatly strengthening the current peace and stability of the world order. As Athenian Federation is the most respected power in Mediterranean region and we find the policies and postures of Athenian Federation not entirely dissimilar to ours, an alliance with your nation seemed most natural to us." KP Varma paused now to await the response from the Empress.

[Centurius]

Ariadne thought about what the man had just stated, Athens and Cochin had been hostile towards each other but that never was personal.

"Your statements hold a lot of merit and I fully agree to them, what do you specifically propose?"

[king of cochin]

"Your Excellency, we propose that our nations enter into an alliance with clauses of Mutual Defense and higher. The treaty would also serve to substantially increase the trade and commercial links between our two nations by mutually setting up Special Economic Zones which would serve to give market access to each other's regional markets. Cochin though economically powerful in its own right, does not have proper market access to the Mediterranean and European markets which we hope to cure through these SEZs. We also hope Athenian Federation would find Special Economic Zones in Cochin top be economically fruitful for it.

One natural question that is raised when questions of Mutual Defense is discussed between two nations so geographically separated as ours is the question of logistics. How does one project its power to aid and defend its ally in a timely manner. It is to address this question that we suggest that Cochin be permitted to establish a Military Logistics Hub in an Athenian territory of your choosing. Prepositioned equipment and a well maintained operational support base would enable us to fulfil our promises while also enabling us to increase our Power Projection range. Being allied to Athenian Federation, Kingdom of Cochin would also be in effect aligning our policy interests in the region accordingly. Seeing as we currently do not have any policy interests per se in your region, such a decision from our part would not be of a self conflicting nature. We offer Athenian Federation same facilities in return in our region," KP Varma said.

[Centurius]

"All these proposals are acceptable provided the deployments will not compromise the lives of Athenian citizens and wildlife. However we can arrange a proper deployment for that. I suppose you have a draft?"

[king of cochin]

[quote]
[color="#FF0000"][size="4"][u][b]Cochin - Athenian Friendship and Solidarity Pact[/b][/u][/size][/color]

[b]Article I - Mutual Defense and Optional Aggression
[/b]
The Kingdom of Cochin and Athenian Federation hereby enters into a Mutual Defense Pact whereby any offensive warfare upon one nation is automatically considered as an offensive act against the other with either nation having to come to the defense of the other militarily, economically and politically.

If and when one signatory launches an offensive war against a third nation, the other signatory has the option to come to the aid of the signatory however it is not mandatory. In case the signatory has treaty obligations with the third nation upon whom war is launched, they shall have the option to remain neutral while in no way aiding or abetting any act of hostility against the fellow signatory.

[b]Article II - Base Exchange
[/b]
In order to fulfill the Mutual Defense obligations the signatories shall exchange full fledged military bases with one another so that sufficient Air/Sea/Land forces could be stationed or prepositioned for ready deployment in times of conflict. The said bases would provide platforms for power projection for one another into the host nation's geographical region.

[b]Article III - Non Aggression and Intelligence Sharing
[/b]
The two nations agree to respect sovereignties of one another and shall not aid or abet any act deemed hostile to the interests of one another. The two nations shall also share intelligence relevant to the national security of one another.

[b]Article IV - Free Trade Agreement
[/b]
The two nations also promise to increase mutual trade and commerce with the purposes of greatly improving mutual trade and prosperity.

[b]Article V - Economic Zone
[/b]
Each nation shall have the opportunity to have Special Economic Zone privileges in the other's territory from where to increase economic and commercial reach of each other. These SEZs shall conform to all the rules and regulations as enacted by the host nation. The investor nation shall have the right to property in the Special Economic Zones.

[b]Article VI - Cancellation
[/b]
This treaty can be cancelled only after a one year cancellation notice (RL one month), a period which is necessary for the necessary divestment of investments and redeployment of military assets stationed for Mutual Defense purposes. During the one year cancellation period, Non Aggression clause shall remain in effect and either nations shall not attempt to impede the movements or strengths of the other's withdrawing forces. The host nation has the right to declare as hostile any military unit remaining in the assigned base after one year of unviolated cancellation period.

[b]Signature[/b][/quote]

"Would you find this draft treaty acceptable, Your Excellency?" KP Varma would say.

[king of cochin]

"Does Athenian Federation find the draft treaty for our agreement acceptable?" KP Varma would ask again.

[king of cochin]

"Your Excellency, am I to presume from this prolonged silence that you may have second thoughts on this alliance?" KP Varma would ask Ariadne Notaras.