Czech Mate

[Czech Slavia]

"Are you really just going to stare into that book the entire way? Isn't it a shame to miss the views of the country?" Albína Reiserová asked while stretching her back and spotting the Minister of Agriculture Pavel Dohnal, who was reading a detective book since they crossed the border. Directly facing Reiserová was the Minister of Culture Karel Šín and a chess board was in between them. Ever since the visit of the Reitzmic Prime Minister Simon Bridges, Reiserová has become obsessed with chess and Šín certainly preferred playing the game than listening to why none of his ideas are good.

"I'm afraid I will, in fact, be reading the book the entire time. I have no desire to see some crazed nudist." answered Dohnal, his eyes still focused solely on the book and his mind focused on hoping that there won't be any nudists when he'll have to leave the comfort of the train.

Reiserová reacted by simply rolling her eyes and looking out of the window thinking about what she could bring from her visit back to her family as a gift. Her mind was however quickly brought back into the game. "Check mate." announced Karel Šín before taking a sip of an orange juice.

"What? No! How did you.... you cheated didn't you?" she responded looking at the board, then Šín and then Dohnal, at first suspecting the Minister of Agriculture to be advising the Minister of Culture, but to her displeasure, Dohnal was reading the entire time she has been playing with Šín. Confirming her fears that Karel Šín has won fairly. Not being able to win frustrated the President for Life, it was her first time directly facing failures since the time she has been elected.

"You know, I still prefer poker." Šín smirked, but an angry look from the President for Life convinced him to stop smirking and start putting board and the pieces back in a box. A little while later the Minister of the Interior Bohumila Dvořáková returned to the other ministers from the bathroom and from the looks on the faces of both Reiserová and Šín she assumed it would be best not to ask who won, so she instead turned to reading a book herself, even though she had just about fifteen minutes before the trail will stop at the Sruighlea train station.

After the train stopped at the station, Reiserová stepped out and raised her hand to greet the present Stratheans, before coming to shake hands with Strathean delegation, being followed by her three ministers. After Minister Šín shook his hand with the High Chieftain Moira Dubhshlin MacPheadair he turned to the other two ministers and whispered "I'll show them how a warlock eats." Dvořáková reacted simply by massaging her temples in frustration at Šín's desire to prove something to vegetarians. Nevertheless šín made sure to stand close to the High Chieftain and demonstratively pulled out a meatloaf sandwich with mustard before taking a big bite out of it. He smiled widely and put on his sunglasses. In his mind he was winning.

[BrumBrum]

The High Chieftain ignored the meatloaf sandwich technically this was also legal but it wasn't exactly appropiate. He greeted him saying "Welcome to our fine country , hopefully during your visit you will see the best we have to offer." Som Blairite protesters were protesting outside the station and as they went to the electric cars she said to the delegation "Ignore those Gobshites over there most people in this country hate those bigots" . They got into the car and went to the first destination. The first destination was about 2 hours outside the city it was a Co-operative store linked to a Co-operative farm. It produced many fine organic produce from potatoes to onions and leeks. They toured the farm showing the modern machinery and the guide talked about the organic processes they used , the crop rotation and how they shared the profits out to the employees and members equally at the end of the year no matter what rank they are in management and how the board was decided fully democratically among the workers. They went into the farms restaurant and had a vegetarian feast including a beautiful leak and potato soup with the finest sourdough bread.They also showed other vegetarian snacks off including vegetarian pasties another staple.

After that they left for a small family bakery and to explore one of the Gael hiking trails to show the beauty of the nature. The trail was beautiful and they reached the view of a forested valley before walking back to the cars and going to the main government headquarters in Sruighlea Castle. All the while they were chatting getting to know the visitors especially Reiserová . They said to Reiserová "So what do you think so far of our beutiful land and country. That farm was in the Clan District of MacRoibeirt who I must say make some of the most beautiful pastries"

[Czech Slavia]

As the delegations sat down to eat at the restaurant, after touring the co-operative farm, minister Dohnal leaned back in his chair and started talking "Well, on the behalf of us all I would like to thank you for leading us through the farm. What fascinated me was the usage of modern technology at the farm and that is something I would like to ask you about. Since your state is heavily agrarian, where do you get the machinery? Is there a national manufacturer or manufacturers? How are they managing with the large supply since the industrial sector is rather small, at least in comparison to the agricultural sector. Do you get the machinery imported from abroad? Because the manufacturers in the Democratic Republic would be eager to supply Strathaen farms with modern, reliable machinery to satisfy their demands." he proposed, before the food was served before him and the other members of both delegations.

After enjoying their food, and minister Šín in particular enjoyed the pastries of which he had eaten as much as the other three members of the Czechoslavonic delegation, they followed their Strathean counterparts until they arrived at the Sruighlea Castle

"The land is beautiful as you said! We ought to do everything we can to protect it, wouldn't you agree?" she responded to MacPheadair while looking over the castle wall into the distance before turning her head to the High Chieftain "But please, tell me something about yourself. Did you have the opportunity to meet with any other foreign representatives? Do you have a family? And do you.. you know, play chess by any chance?" she smiled.

After the High Chieftain answered the two were approached by minister Dvořáková. "Ah right, comrade Minister has some proposition for you to consider. Go ahead." signalled Reiserová to Dvořáková.

"Thank you comrade President for Life." Dvořáková responded and turned to MacPheadair "Your Excellency, we noted that your government hold similar stance towards illegal immigration and therefor I, on the behalf of the government of the Democratic Republic, would like to propose a cooperation on the border control between the Clan Democracy and the Democratic Republic. We could renovate our border fortifications, update our watchtowers, start a recruitment campaign for more border guards and updating their equipment, in order to better control our common border and fight against illegal immigration and trafficking and we ask your government to invest into this project, for a safer future of both of our states. Furthermore, Czech weapons manufacturers could also supply Strathean law enforcement with firearms." she finished speaking and smiled at the Strathead Head of State.

[BrumBrum]

She listened to the propositions on farming and replied "Indeed we have to import alot of the equipment as it is quite specialised and as a smaller agrarian economy there isn't a massive industrial base here so any Czech machinery is welcome , alot of our equipment as you've seen is electric or hybrid that move started well before most countries."

She answered the family question next "I have 3 lovely sons and daughters Cormac , Eachann who I am pretty sure is planning to put me out of a job in 10 years time and my daughter Searlait and my husand Riordan. Honestly they have grown so fast so I try to get any moment I'm not running this country to spend with them. I grew up on a farm myself with my parents being part of a cooperative for selling milk, I learnt there the value of hard work and labour and considering your community. I loved my house too when I got married , we are lucky here to get to build a house having only to borrow to get materials and cover architect fees , people build our homes for free on the Community Duty programme which you will have likely heard about but basically we all put a day in for free for some sort of community benefit and that can include building homes for people in return we can get access to that free labour pool and expertise when we need it for example to build my house. Its a beautiful pay it forward system in essence, its not slavery like some have exaggerated , but benefits from programmes that benefitted from free labour were limited to stop the whole freeloader problem. But anyway I like to just go hiking in my spare time and seeing different places though I do like BASE jumping much to health and safety's chargrin, I certainly keep them on their toes! I do like a good game of chess also but we actually have a different game thats popular here call Nine Mens Morris which is actually even older than chess. The moves are simpler but don't let that fool you it can be an extremely brutal game if you mess up early on it doesn't forgive you."

After the border proposals were proposed she said "Actually we were going to come to you with a different offer called the Reiserová Zone that we think could work possibly but yours is also an option with queues specially for our nations and yours to speed things up on entry but we were thinking perhaps we could establish a Czech -Strathae external border with a visa vetted by both nations for tourists and businessmen coming in but internally we basically treat it as no border existing. We have very secure borders and we understand you do so it could work for both of us and make business and transport between our countries easily especially if we have a joint customs zone to eliminate customs checks also and harmonise those policies. We also would like Czech arms for our armed forces we make some ourselves but also need foreign ones but generally its a smaller thing here as we believe strongly in police being approachable so the default is for police not to have arms except for some special units to call on if needed. We believe it makes police approachable. But what do you think to our border proposal."

[Czech Slavia]

"Well actually, with all due respect Ms. High Chieftain , we prefer to rely on ourselves for the protection of our borders. If our states established a free movement between themselves, we would have to rely on the other state for keeping their borders secure, which is not ideal. Furthermore a risk of trans-borders crimes occurring would increase. Therefore we would like to find an agreement strengthening the security of our border, not diminishing it." responded Dvořáková, not mentioning the fact that the Democratic Republic was worried about Strathean immigrants, percieved as culturally very different, settling in the country.

While MacPheadair and Dvořáková were talking, President Reiserová was approached by Šín, who informed her that once they arrive back home, the Minister of Regional Development Lubomír Mejzlík wants to meet with her, and while standing alongside her he overheard the High Chieftain's words about Strathean police being approachable. "I can see that." he entered the conversation and after his words, "Your police certainly seems to like approaching people a lot." he commented on the most recent waves of arrests in the Clan Democracy. Reiserová smiled, tapped him on the hand and signalled to him with her eyes that it is time for him to leave and he obliged.

"Well selling of arms to armed forces is outside my competences as a Minister of the Interior, but I will contact the Ministry of Defense." Dvořáková simply smiled as a response. In fact selling arms for armed forces in neighboring country was in general perceived as problematic as those weapons could be later used against Czech Slavia. With that Dovřáková again greeted the Strathean High Chieftain and left her alone with Reiserová once again.

"Right, now where were we?" the President for Life returned to conversation with her counterpart. "Oh yes, you told me you like hiking? Me too! Have you ever been to Mennrimiak and Ruthund? They have wonderful mountains I am sure you would love them! But anyway, do we have an agreement on trade in agriculture machinery and increased border control? And do you have anything else you'd like to discuss? If you don't, please allow me to invite you to a game of chess." she squinted her eyes at MacPheadair to challenge her. Reiserová was not looking to play a game of Nine Mens Morris as she didn't need to discover that she isn't able to win in another game.

[BrumBrum]

MacPheadair heard the comment and adressed it "Our police are proportional. The only group of people getting arrested are those bigots and assholes that are Blairites because they for some reason cannot get over harrassing and bullying Christians and Catholics and singing hate songs and chants at people.I am sure you understand we have a duty to protect minorities including Catholics and Protestants , and these pests just can't help themselves in trying to persecute them, forcing us to act. They are just human excrement really the Blairites I was always opposed to them when in Blair was in power."

She then moved on to Arms "That sounds fantastic."

She wanted to bring up trade before the meeting ended and cooperation on education and science. She said "We'd like to propose a trade arrangement where goods from our SME's, SOE's and cooperativess get zero tariffs on them in your country in return for the same for your SME's , SOE's and Cooperatives. We don't want to enocurage big business as you'll understand and give them advantages but SME's SOE's and Cooperatives we can do a deal on. Also we'd like to set up Education and Research Exchange programmes so we can work together for the good of the both of our countries people. "

She responded the the hiking question "I have I prefer Ruthund as it seems much better looked after in the national parks. I have been to Mennrimiak which is also highly beautiful. I'll challenge you to chess if you play nine mens morris, how about we do 2 demonstrator games to show you the best strategies."

[Czech Slavia]

"Yikes." simply answered Reiserová after hearing MacPheadair's words about the arrests. She in fact hasn't understand her counterpart at all.

"Oh yes, trade! The Democratic Republic would certainly be interested in Strathae becoming our main source of natural gas since we are, you know in such a proximity. And we are also ready to remove tariffs on any non-agricultural goods. Education anf Reaserch Exchange I'll have to consider." she responded and smiled at MacPheadair.

"Well I don't know how to play nine mens morris, but if you, you know, want to show me, go ahead." as she finished speaking she signalled to the High Chieftain, that she is ready to follow her.

[BrumBrum]

She showed the nine mens morris and the complexity of the deceptively simple game. The game had been invented in Strathae so was a staple. She replied to the offer "We can agree to the conditions of free trade on non-agricultural as long as final products in the food market are not classed as agricultural. We can certainly look to be a main gas supplier to you and give exclusive rights to partner with our national companies here as long as the highest environmental standards are met. I cannot pass a project if it has too high environmental concerns." She asked "Do you have any proposals to bring to the table? "

[BrumBrum]

The talks continued with both exchanging views. After about 3 hours an agreement was reached with the treaty overview typed. The proposal was presented.MacPheadair signed the treaty and then gave the gift of some fine Strathaen Cheeses and food and a 9 mens morris set for her to practice with hand carved in Strathae.

[Czech Slavia]

"No agreement on the border protection?" Reiserová asked while reading the proposed agreement, "Well, you know, never mind, here I'll gladly sign the agreement." and she did as she said, then she smiled at her counterpart and shook her hand.

"I am glad we have come to an agreement, and to have seen your pleasant land. To future co-operation!" she raised her glass to the High Chieftain and finished it in a short sip after. She stood up and turned to her Minister of Interior Dvořáková, "Are we ready to go comrade?"

"Certainly comrade President, our brethren in Bricston are awaiting us." Dvořáková responded. With that the meeting between the Czechs and Strathean has concluded and the Czech delegation continued up north to the Republic of Brickston.

[BrumBrum]

MacPheadair responded "We can certainlty agree to this
Section II Border
1.We the parties of this agreement agree to a joint Czech-Strathae border protection agency and to fund efficient but quick border processing points and manage the joint Strathae-Czech borderlands. "

She listened to see if its what the Czechs wanted.