Bridging the Mile-Wide Gap | Istkalen - Inimicus
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Bridging the Mile-Wide Gap
Istkalen-Inimicus Covert Summit
Somewhere outside the Inimician Capital, Telum; 29th January 2022
From a concealed Imperial Air Force Fiat Ducato van, Imperial Foreign Officer watched the military jet carrying the Istkalen foreign minister touch down on the tarmac. Never before had any representative from this historically troubled nation been on an official visit to the Empire. And even now, Sarah could not claim she had 'officially' met foreign minister Írenet Isteresskemar, not publically. Her Office, and the Inimician government generally, maintained an image of open distance and even hostility towards Istkalen. No Inimician nationals, barring diplomatic staff and security, were currently allowed to travel there. No Istkalenians were permitted entry to the Empire. No trade occured. No exchange of information.
All that was about to change today, at least behind the drawn curtains. The Imperial Foreign Office had received an encrypted communiqué from Isteresskemar's organisation, offering a re-opening of diplomatic relations with interesting terms that had the real potential to advance the Empire's foreign presence in the region. Nevertheless, secrecy was of the essence. Even His Imperial Majesty Emperor Artabanos was only vaguely aware of the meeting Sarah was about to have. Or, well, at least she had not told Him much -- she was sure His informants were all too knowledgeable. She was in the favourable position of having the Emperor's full trust, and genuinely being able to speak on behalf of Him.
The doors of the murky, cold Fiat van opened, and a soldier announced the Istkalen delegation had disembarked. Sarah went out in the cold morning air -- winters were generally dry and cloudless in Telum, making the mornings all that more chilly -- and walked along a gravel path, flanked by armed men, towards the airstrip. She watched the jet's passenger door open and greeted the first officials from the Republic of Istkalen to ever visit the Empire.
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Isteresskemar knew well that she was not going abroad of her own accord. If she were the one in power she would not have agreed to such a thing. Unlike Rikkalek, unlike the various associations which now controlled her, she was cautious. Istkalen had once gotten itself entangled in the struggles of the outside world, and had suffered; in her opinion, that policy should have remained. They merely should have touched the outside world when necessary, and wait simply for it to become untenable for the rest of the world to keep refusing to engage with them.
The opinion of others was of rapid expansion, of doing anything necessary, even the most reckless of things, to push forwards. She no longer had a choice in it; she had been silenced, just a figurehead for a committee working in the background. She had been tasked with representing the country; she could not refuse, lest she be removed and forced to roam the country as a beggar. The fate of a civil servant who resigned or who was sacked was never pleasant; she would not risk it. She would hold on to the end, even if she had to betray every part of herself for it.
It was morning, and yet, as she walked out of the plane she was almost blinded by the sun. The light drives the darkness away, she thought. That was how they viewed her, now, darkness, rot, corruption.
She greeted the Imperial Foreign Officer, feeling as though she were leading her country into certain doom.
"Now," she said, almost in a whisper, after greeting, making all necessary formalities - she had never quite been a person for hedging and delaying - "where are we first to meet? Not here, I imagine - I assume I'll be taken somewhere - but I believe we both know the necessity of..discreetness."
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A light haze covered the airfield's grounds as Sarah greeted Minister Isteresskemar. "Írenet, so good to see you -- I can call you Írenet, can't I? If you'll follow me, our car is waiting to take us to Telum's Capital Defence Command headquarters, where no onlookers will meddle with our important business."
Guiding the minister to the motorcade, Sarah became aware of her counterpart's apparent anxiety about her trip to the Empire. This was, of course, natural. Sarah had made goodness knows how many diplomatic journeys abroad, but every time she felt an immense weight on her shoulders. Truly, nothing was more nerve-wracking. Perhaps, however, that also meant there was nothing more satisfying, when things worked out for the best, that is.
And that was exactly her purpose today. To make things work out with Istkalen, for once. Small talk escorted the two representatives to their meeting place, at an undisclosed location deep inside the Capital Defence Command's headquarters. The recent dawn still obscured much of the military infrastructure to be seen from the car -- no doubt, Sarah's security consultant had planned it that way.
"Well, here we are", Sarah started after both delegations had been seated in a slightly damp, badly lit meeting room, "I wish I had a more gradiose setting to show you, but who knows, perhaps next time." She took a sip of water -- even the stuff from the taps tasted weird down here. "As you'll know, the Inimician press and, indeed, the Inimician legislature, is best kept uninformed of our dealings here today. I trust it is much the same in your nation."
"Anyway", Sarah shuffled around some papers, exchanged a file with an aide's, and proceeded, "The Imperial Government of the Empire of Inimicus is willing, no, keen, to begin, albeit cautiously, a normalising of relations between our two nations. However, before this is possible, we have certain security concerns to allay ourselves of, as I'm sure you'll understand. The Imperial Government is also immensely keen to hear proposals from your side."
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"It is good to hear that your government is willing to reopen relations. I would of course like first to enquire about the specific security concerns you have, alhough please, rest assured that the Government of the Republic of Istkalen has total control over the whole of the territory of Istkalen. There were quite a few...troublemakers during the occupation, but since the Reitzmics have left we have been able to...deal with them. They are gone now, and no more will arise without the Government itself knowing - we have eyes and ears everywhere. Our military, too, is strong and loyal - we have assured that, we have removed anyone of suspect loyalty from its ranks - there is no risk of an insurgency or anything of any nature that would compromise the stability of the state."
"Now, our proposals. Both your government and ours, I believe, have an interest in controlling the expansion of the Reitzmic sphere of influence. We, at least, do not want to antagonize the Reitzmic government, but we do not want to become a satellite of theirs. On this, we believe, particularly considering our geographical position - directly next to Reitzmic - we can cooperate. We ask, very simply, that your government perhaps establish a military base in our territory, which we will assist, and thus the normalization of relations between our two nations."
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"I must say, we think this is an absolutely excellent idea", Sarah replied, knowing full well this was the real reason the two diplomats had met, "An Inimician military presence in Istkalen would help alleviate public concerns in the Empire that Istkalen is a hostile environment -- which, I know full well, it is not, of course. We would also be reassured in the sense that the safety of our diplomats and any assets, whehter political or economic, we would maintain in Istkalen would be protected in the event of an emergency. Are there any size or personnel limits the Istkalen government is not willing to exceed with regards to this base?
"His Imperial Majesty rewards friendship with generosity. The Empire would be most willing to supply Istkalen with a steady stream of bauxite from our extensive mining network in Terra Dominus, as well as supplies of natural gas from the Terra Rosarum gas bubbles should these be needed.
"I am not entirely aware of your nation's energy production statistics, but Inimicus also has an incredibly efficient uranium mining industry, most useful and valuable in the generation of low-carbon, high-yield electricity. I am aware Istkalen possesses large uranium deposite -- perhaps you would be interested in Inimician investment in modern, state-of-the-art nuclear power facilities? Likewise, I would imagine the Imperial Armed Forces would be most interested in acquiring, through exchange or direct purchase, a regular stock of Istkalen's cobalt, tungsten, and rare earth mineral supplies."
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“We demand two limitations as of now - that the number of troops in Istkalen does not exceed 15000, and that no base is established within 100 km of either the capital or the city of Kirelesile, both really restraints caused by the public opinion.”
“We are also willing to supply Inimicus with supplies of cobalt. Tungsten and rare earths we cannot entirely assure - these are likely to be covered by agreements we intend to make with other producers - but we will seek in these negotiations to ensure that your country remains supplied. In regards to uranium - we thank you for your offer, but we, as of now, do not have need for it - we already have an advanced system of power supply, including numerous nuclear power plants.”
“We are also deeply interested in and of course in favor of and thankful for your offer of bauxite supply.”
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"Those limitations are more than fair, Írenet. I'm sure we could find a suitable location that works for us both. Excuse me if my Istkalen geography is slightly off, but I seem to recollect there might be suitable grounds on the western side of your nation?
"Excellent -- an exchange of Inimician bauxite and Istkalenian cobalt would no doubt bring profits to both our nations. I still feel, however, that Inimicus is getting the better side of this bargain. Perhaps our agreements could be made fairer by Inimician training and supplying of the new democratic armed forces of Istkalen? This is something we would definitely be willing to discuss, and something that would work well from our new base in your nation."
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"You are indeed correct regarding possible sites for the base," said Isteresskemar. "However, I must unfortunately turn down your offers for training and supplying; the Ministry of Defense in Istkalen believes that training should be a completely domestic affair, and is attempting to pursue self-sufficiency in terms of supply, which in my opinion will go nowhere, but regardless it is what it is. One last thing - we would like to ensure that, in the unlikely case of war, that Inimican armed forces do not conduct offenses without the permission of our government."
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"I see", said Sarah, and took a sip of drink. "Well, the offer of supplying and training remains open, should you wish to take advantage of it. As for this final condition, we would of course be happy to agree with this -- we do not expect or anticipate any offensive operations to be conducted by our military in the near or distant future, but as the recent situation in North Diessen showed, you simply never know. In any case, this is something we would happily agree to.
"I do wonder, Minister -- and please do not take this the wrong way -- what is the benefit to Istkalen of an Inimician military presence in your nation? Currently, we have discussed an exchange of minerals, bauxite against cobalt, but what does your side have to gain from our 15,000 personnel stationed in your nation?"
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"What benefit we have is as follows. The base controls the expansion of Reitzmic influence, we feel. Above all, it is that limitation, that control, which the government of Istkalen pursues; we do not want to be subsumed, and we will compromise with them only when our national security is genuinely threatened."
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"Ah, well, I mean, you'll always find Inimicus on your side in curbing Reitzmic influence. Very good. Unless you have any other proposals to make, Irenet, I think we are mostly done here for this initial meeting. I will just ask you this, and again, do not take this the wrong way: will your government be able to offer any sort of security arrangements or guarantees to our troops stationed in Istkalen? We have seen quite.... extensive civil disturbances in Istkalen over the last few years -- the last thing we would want is to send troops into your nation only to have hundreds of them perish in suicide bombings or IED attacks."
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"We will. The primary threat to any base is, and we will freely admit this, the militant population. We will relocate those living within 25 km of the base to other areas, and will establish a security perimeter around the base, staffed probably by our Republican Guard - which is not any politicized organization but rather simplye our military police, which will remain in contact with the base in question as well as the Istkalenic military in the unlikely case of an incursion. We are willing to commit to additional security measures, but we would first like to hear your comments regarding these measures."
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"Mm, yes, well, thank you for your candour", said Sarah, and a vision of Istkalen citizens assaulting Inimician soldiers briefly crossed her mind. "But we thank you for your assurances and plans for enhanced security. We would, of course, have to insist on our own checkpoint procedures, to judge who can and who cannot enter our compound -- notwithstanding that we shall not reasonably deny entry to any Istkalen official with a stated, reasonable purpose. If, in the unlikely case of a serious, armed threat from the surrounding population, our soldiers feel the need to defend themselves with force, we would also seek the assurance that there would be no reprisals from the side of the Istkalen government."
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'We will accept both demands," said Isteresskemar, "the first completely, but the second only partially. We insist that our government have authority, outside of the base proper, to determine what exactly self-defence is. While we understand Inimican concerns over armed threats, we are concerned that a vague definition of an "armed threat" could hypothetically allow - and this is of course extraordinarily unlikely - for unscrupulous people to get away with committing crimes against Istkalenic citizens."
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"Hmm, very well, I see. Naturally, we are not expecting Inimician military convoys to be assailed by militant farmers, that is not at all what I implied. Nor will Inimician soldiers go around Istkalen shooting anyone they deem even remotely a threat to their safety. We merely wanted reassurance that, should an incursion or security incident happen in the base, or around its confines, that your government will judge such situations fairly, and understand that the Imperial Government cares deeply about its military security, the safety of its personnel, and the secrecy of some of its technological assets.
"I think, Írenet, unless there are other things we must discuss, we can formalise our preliminary agreements. I am old the name of this place is Diem Military Compound, so how about the 'Diem Accords' for our new treaty?" Sarah Scribbled down some notes and handed them to aides, who rushed out the room to typeset what had been agreed thus far.
"While we wait, allow me to summarise our agreements. First, Inimicus will lift its economic and diplomatic sanctions on Istkalen. Second, there will be an exchange of natural resources, specifically of Inimician bauxite and Istkalenic cobalt. Istkalen also agrees to strive in international arrangements to maintain a supply of tungsten and rare earth minerals to Inimicus.
"Finally, the Imperial Armed Forces will establish a military base in Istkalen, at least more than 100km from your capital or the city of Kirelesile, and troop counts shall not exceed 15,000 at any time. Inimicus agrees not to launch offensive operations from this base without the prior agreement of your government. Istkalen agrees to establish a 25km-perimeter around this base, clearing habitation and military police checkpoints, and will allow the Inimician military to conduct its own additional security checks on the territory of the base and control entry and exit points.
"Does that all sound agreeable to you? Unless there are other things we should discuss at this time, then I think -- ah! Thank you", Sarah said, as the aides laid out the draft Diem Accords in front of them. "The Empire is ready to sign. Are you?"
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"We are ready to sign, yes," said Isteresskemar after reading the agreement, before then signing it.
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"Excellent!", exclaimed Sarah, elated both for the satisfactory results of this meeting and for the good news she would be able to bring the Emperor. She passed a pen to her Istkalenic counterpart, before taking out another and affixing her signature, and with it, the authority of the Imperial Prerogative, to the Diem Accords.
"Well, Írenet, as much as I would love to hang around, I suggest we meet sometime again soon in a more open, relaxed setting. Military bases are no place for quiet, proper discussion with peers -- or, should I say, with friends."
Gladwell gestured the Istkalenic delegation to the next room, where some brief time for refreshments was spent, before everyone was once again loaded into convoys, and driven back to the airport.
