Opening up (Ineland - United Duchies meeting in Hautcour)

Ineland

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Office of the Minister-President
Hautcour, Ineland

Winters were generally cold in Hautcour, yet this one was slightly colder than usual. Temperatures had dropped to an astounding -12 Cº in the preceeding 24 hours, with even some parts of the surface of Lake Calenne having frozen. However, weather was good and skies were completely clear, as if prepared to receive Ineland's first high level diplomatic visit since accession to the European Union.

Frederick Vandervelde (FV): Julien, we should start going to the airport. We don't want our guests to have to wait for us at the apron under this cold temperatures.
Aide to the M-P: Of course, Minister-President.
FV: Will Kasper meet us at the airport?
Aide to the M-P: Yes, sir. I am told that his car already left the MFA office a few minutes ago.
FV: Good thing, thanks Julien.

The meeting with the prime minister of the United Duchies was Ineland's first diplomatic test in the European arena. As the country had just entered the EU, it was about time to find Ineland's place in the Union and this first meeting would be great to do an initial testing of the waters on one of the region's diplomatic blocs. It was also a crucial meeting on other aspects too as economic cooperation and business access was on the agenda too. Ineland had experienced a period of deep and tough recession in the previous decade due to a very poorly handled real estate boom and, even though the situation was improving, further economic activity fueled by foreign investment was the kind of boost the government was looking for. And, of course, the acquisition of military hardware. Ineland's Defence Force was in a precarious state as the years of economic stagnation had taken their toll on the military. Years of budget cuts and diminished expenditure on maintenance had put the armed forces in a state of despair. The government wanted to change that as well with this meeting.

After a 20 minute drive, during which Frederick had been going over some notes and economic stats, the car was finally reaching the airport. After going through the secrity checkpoint, the car went straight to the side of the airport where the airplane carrying the members of the government of the United Duchies' would be arriving. The car of the minister of Foreign Affairs was already there and Kasper Merck, the minister, was stoically waiting on the cold weather. The minister-president joined him, and after a brief handshake they both stood up, waiting, as the plane was taxiing in their direction.

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Prime Minister John P eter Key had spent the previous week being very busy. The country had a funeral to do prepare and a coronation the death of a High Duke was a big thing , not to mention the laws that had been held up. Fortunately the High Duke elect could still help run things. On the plane over John Peter Key and Arron Scott the foreign minister discussed what they planned to get out of the visit. All parties had been consulted but agreed ECON and free trade should be on the agenda as well as cooperation on crime and education. But the main thing would be discussing European Coalition of Nations membership they had been told by Ineland that Ineland was interested in joining , and hoped to make this possible. The plan landed at Harcourt , the city looked similar to many of their Germanic cities , it looked beautiful from above.

Getting off the plane they greeted Kasper Merck, and Minister President saying "Good morning , looks like a fine day to arrive" and shook the hands of the Foreign Minister and Minister President.

Ineland

As Prime Minister Key and Minister Scott walked down the steps from the aircraft, the ceremonial guard saluted the two dignataries. As they were approached by the Duchian leaders, Premier Vandervelde and Minister Merckx extended their arms and shook their guests' hands enthusiastically.

FV: Mr. Prime Minister, Minister, welcome to Ineland. It is an enormous pleasure to welcome you into our country.
Kasper Merckx (KM): Indeed, welcome to the United Principalities. Or, as we affectionately call our country, the emerald valley.
FV: I hope your flight went well. As you can see, despite of the freezing temperatures, it seems like your visit will be a methereologically pleasant one.

After welcoming their guests, they all entered one of the cars that drove them back to the Minister-President's office in Hautcour city center. After a chat of the four to talk about several issues (possible accession to the ECON, economic cooperation and transportation infrastructures were high on the list) in the Office of the Minister-President building, the plan was to visit the city hall and sign a brief joint declaration in front of the press, and finally to hold a meeting with His Majesty ahead of his attendance to the crowning ceremony of High Duke Nikolai III.

Traffic had gotten even better than on the way to the airport, with the whole drive taking less than 15 minutes. As the car slowed down, the four pulled out of the car and entered the building through the main arched gate. After going up the stairs to the first floor, Frederick invited them all into his office. It was a huge room, with a high ceiling that saw it's feeling of enormity increased by the brownish sandstone walls. In front of the work desk there was a set of four armchairs by a tea table. They all took a seat to get to business.

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Prime Minister John Peter Key chatted about the journey and how nice the country was . They enjoyed the car ride commenting on the beauty of the country .On meeting his majesty they bowed out of respect, saying "Thank you for welcoming us to your wonderful country Your Majesty, its truly an honour" . They got into the office ready for discussions. Then they started saying "So shall we get onto the agenda , We definitely want to increase our trade and research cooperation ties and we understand you are interested in European Coalition of Nations membership. This would obviously achieve all those goals and also defence to which we can then add specific programmes. Is my understanding correct."

Ineland

FV: Indeed. Those are some of the top issues for our government. On the trade aspect, we would be interested in working towards a free trade agreement that includes provisions for visa free travel between our nations. Closely tied to that, we would be up for a negotiation on a further opening of our economy to Duchian businesses, as some are already established in Ineland, with a closer collaboration and forging of alliances with domestic businesses mostly in the retail sector. Indeed, we are also interested in the possibility of joining ECON. Ineland possesses a sizeable military force and we wish to become a force for good to contribute to strengthen stability in the region. That's why we feel ECON membership could be an important step to help guarantee a stable European Union from our position in the Atlantic coast. It is to be said though that accession to ECON will be subject to parliamentary approval and with our next general election due in april this year it might be tricky, yet not impossible, to reach an agreement under the current parliament. However, certain aspects of ECON member states' foreign policy decisions in the past months and years have kept us concerned and many in our cabinet and in parliament feel that an alignment under the ECON banner might put Ineland in a complicated situation in the EU.
KM: Besides this, our military is in the midst of a wide reorganization. The economic downturn of the previous decade left our military underfunded and our equipment slowly became outdated. That's why we'd also be interested in acquiring military hardware from Duchian producers. In that sense, we'd be highly interested in acquiring replacements for our aging equipment, with an eye on hardware such as S-80 subs, ATHLAS 26000 amphibious assault carriers, Hobart class destroyers, Eurofighter Typhoon jets, A400M transport aircraft, BMR armoured personnel carriers, and 155/52 howitzers.
FV: Moving on to transportation and infrastructure, our government is deeply committed to promote the development of sustainable land travel as an alternative to polluting air and sea means of transportation, with an aim at developing a economies of scales that make freight and passenger transportation through high speed rail a financially sound possibility. In a few months we will be opening the backbone of our country's new high speed rail system and we'd be interested in joining the Eurorail initiative to include a transnational dimension to our transportation policy.

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John Peter Key listened and responded " We understand the complications with elections and that it would be a big step but one thing ECON doesn't do is restrict foreign policy so you can have good relationships outside of ECON if that is a concern also of not it is a treaty of true friends. We consider an ally somewhat differently to other treaties, we believe its possible to be an ally while disagreeing occaisonally and even challenging an ally on an issue of concern by raising any issues and this is the type of relationship you'd be entering if your nation joined.

We could definitely offer a fair trade treaty and co-operation treaty in research independent of ECON on a bilateral basis and its something we are keen to do. The only requirements we have is any companies are treated equally to your own in your market just as yours would be in ours.As for defense we can issue export licenses for most military equipment you would need and would be honoured to export these to your military.We also could maybe talk with Inquista and other nations about setting a up Eurorail from you to the Duchies to increase green transport options, we are keen to expand our Eurorail connections to reduce flights taken to and from the Duchies since we are keen to be a responsible nation on environmental protection.

Ineland

FV: Your words on the nature of ECON are of great relief to us. However, we feel that for the time being a bilateral agreement between Ineland and the Duchies would be an adequate first step ahead of the possibility of an application for admission into ECON. And, of course, such an agreement would be based on an absolute reciprocity for fair participation of our businesses in each of our markets without hurdles of any kind. On the research aspect, we'd be very pleased to include that dimension into a bilateral agreement, and we feel that incorporating the establishment of a university researcher and student exchange dimension would be of enormous importance. Going back to the transportation aspect, the involvement of other states such as Inquista would be very much welcome by us as our intention is to get fully involved in the Eurorail network. And finally, on the military hardware, we are very thankful for your openness to help us provide our military with updated equipment. At the same time, we would be more than happy to provide Duchian forces as well with equipment such as SAAB jet fighters and vehicles for winter mobility if an interest should arise.

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John Peter Key replied " I am glad you are interested and for the bi-lateral we can garuntee no additional hurdles over any other business. Your companies will have to set up subsidiaries and give at least 33% of the seats of the board to workers at the Duchian company level like ours have to to keep things fair and meet same environmental packing standards for example but we can garuntee equal access. On defense while a nice offer we tend to use military suppliers from within Duchies or now ECON so at the moment there wouldn't be much interest with us having mostly what we need though perhaps guns are a possibility but we don't tend to have massively cold winters anywhere significant to our military." He then proposed the next scheme "Can I propose you join the sheme to have semester swaps with out universities so people from your universities can set up swaps with our universities and vice versa. That way students can study abroad for 1 year of their course or 2 in a 4 year course."

Ineland

FV: The model scheme for university exchanges you are proposing seems like a good starting point for us. If your government would be good with it, maybe we could start with some test experiences in selected universities before opening up to a more widespread programme. Coming back to military hardware providing, our government is going to launch a call for providers as we are planning to expand our naval capabilities and we would be pleased to see Duchian docks applying to it.