What's in a Canal? (UD-Inimicus Summit)

[Inimicus]

What's in a Canal?

United Duchies -- Inimicus Summit

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Summer was fast approaching in Telum: Emperor Artabanos looked out over His Palace gardens and saw early spring flowers waning, grown-up birdlings leaving their nests, and grass that was beginning to show the effects of the dry central Inimician climate. Soon, it would become dry and hot. Plants would scorch and animals converge at the riverside to drink. Then in autumn, storms and storms of rain would fall to replenish the dried-up soil.

But Artabanos had other things to deal with at the moment. John Peter Key, Prime Minister of the United Duchies, was minutes away from the Imperial Palace. Relations between the UD and the Empire had soured over the last year or so, ever since the Duchian tendency to cuddle up to Simon Bridges and the Reitzmen. Inimicus and the other members of the Treaty of Telum had expelled the UD from the Treaty, and a recent Reitzmic long-distance bombing raid on Duchian territory was met with strong condemnation from across the Inimician political spectrum (or however much remained of it).

Peter Key had requested this meeting. Artabanos was quite happy to wait out the construction of His fancy new canal in North Diessen before undercutting the Duchies on trans-caspian tariffs and seeing their business model grounded. Such is the price of cahooting with Simon Bridges. But, perhaps there was something to be gained from a pre-emptive meeting with the Duchians, who had been strong allies in the past and whose spearheading economy was still an important factor in Inimicus's national existence.

Thoughts raced through Emperor Artabanos's head as the Duchian motorcade rolled into view.

[BrumBrum]

As the Eurorail sped with the PM and Foreign minister on board they both spoke to each other. This was gonna be a tough meeting but something could be salvaged no relation was beyond broken to Duchies. The balancing act between Telum and Caspian was always going to be a tough one but they'd done pretty well so far.

The aims of the meeting were simple protect free trade, protect the easier visa requirements and make sure no canal price war happened as that would benefit no one and make sure no military use of any of the canals happens outside of ND and UD. The train rolled in they got into the all electric motorcade. The motorcade arrived to Artabonos. The PM John Peter Key led the greeting and said "Hello my friend, hows the family? James sends his best wishes." The foreign minister Arron Scott also greeted him respectfully.

[Inimicus]

"My -- My family? How did you know--- Eh, ah, thank you, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister. Welcome to Telum", Artabanos stammered as the two Duchian statesmen emerged from their vehicles. "Of course, you will know this well, you were here for the signing of the Telum Treaty, after all. Nice trip? I hear Eurorail takes rather a grand route through the country. I've wished to experience it Myself for rather a long while, but sadly I simply cannot run the risk of being sat next to someone who chooses the exact moment I board to eat a smelly egg sandwich. Not to mention football supporters on trains, My gosh. Anyway, shall we?"

The Emperor led Peter Key and his foreign minister through the corrdors of the Imperial Palace, where so many foreign dignitaries had come before, and pointed out critical landmarks and artworks as He went. "Now this room", He began as the delegation entered the great reception hall, "I'm thinking we'll start the Canal Opening Party here with some drinks and a bite to eat. Won't that be grand? Perhaps it's a touch far away from the actual Canal, but I'm sure we'll work something out."

Artabanos and two Duchians arrived in the Emperor's study, where glasses and scotch had - as always, these days, been set out by servants. "So, my friends, welcome again to my humble abode", Artabanos said as He filled each glass copiously, "I know I was supposed to have briefed Myself before your arrival, but sometimes an Emperor is just so busy, you know? Way too many men in uniform to inspect. What is it you wish to discuss?"

[BrumBrum]

John Peter Key said "James , he spoke to me and asked him to send his best wishes."

He noted about the canal which was one of the things he wanted to discuss. He said "We are very impressed at your canal we must say but we have concerns and would like to discuss with you. One concern we have is that a price war develops which would be good for neither of us so we have a proposal. Basically we have a Canal Cooperation Commission that we each have 1 seat each on and cooperate to develop joint standards , pricing and other policies of course before any discounts offered to our friendship treaties and alliances like Telum and ECON. We believe this will maximise profits for both our canals and importantly ensure we can both make a profit. We do not want a price war as it could easily cause both canals to make losses.

The other is we are willing to continue to deny any military use except for Duchies military of our canal if you have only North Diessan military use the North Diessan canal. If Innimicus and Telum nations outside Caspian don't use your canal we can garuntee no military use of our canal. We believe this is best for regional stability."

[Inimicus]

Ah yes, there it was, thought Artabanos as He took a big swig of drink while listening to Peter Key's proposal. Did the Duchians not understand the whole purpose of building His own canal was to be rid of international restrictions on what He could and couldn't transport through there? "First off", He began, leaning forward, "I feel obliged to say I can answer for the Canal as a member of its Board of Trustees -- however, any decisions taken or agreements made today will not enter into force until the Board, in a unanimous decision, agrees to them as well. The two of us could decide to only allow the shipping of rainbows and unicorns through either Canal, but if a member of the Board does not agree, it's not happening."

"That said, you will understand that we see great issues with the restrictions you proposed. From our perspective, and please do not take this the wrong way, we have everything to gain, and you have everything to lose. The Duchies have had a monopoly on inter-Caspian trade for decades, and now that monopoly is ending. I understand your intention to regulate our Canal to minimise the damages caused to your own, but the Board will never agree to a deal that cripples our Canal only to save yours.

"I shall let you in on a small secret. The Board assures me that maintenance of the Canal comes in at around €200m annually. If I wanted to, I could pay the entire thing out of my own pocket for a decade. I am not, in virtually any sense, concerned about the finances of the Canal. What I am concerned with, and this may come across as insensitive to you, is strategic access to the Caspian through a waterway not controlled by a government now seemingly allied to the Kingdom of Reitzmag. And I suppose this is where my question to you comes in, and it is one I have wanted to ask for several months now: why? Why did the Duchies abandon the great things we had going on in Telum? Why did you slip down so much you allowed the mass bombing of your own mountains? It is inconceivable to me."

[BrumBrum]

John Peter Key replied " I can understand there is an end to the position being of only one canal being available but sincerely think you are underestimating the cost of running these canals. €200 million is pretty much chump change. We get around 3 billion euros as shown in the public accounts but the base costs are nowhere near 200 million and it obviously depends on the amount of tugs you need to big ships for example . The danger of a price war is it will make both ventures unprofitable that will only hurt both ventures .

Now on what goods go through yours we don't care thats a canal decision but certain goods are certainly far more risky and have the potential to block a canal for while.Also on military we just don't want to see military ships other than Caspian powers in the Caspian just as we prevent military ships outside of Caspian powers from leaving via our canal. As soon as you send a military ship through that canal to the Caspian it becomes impossible for us to justify banning Caspian power ships through our canal and that includes Reitzmag which I am sure you don't want. We don't want to see a militarisation of the Caspian which could be dangerous and lead to more potential for armed conflict."

He moved on to the Telum point "We were very comitted to Telum which is actually why we restricted the amount of defense partnerships in the Caspian but we also wanted to b friendly still with the Caspian which is of great importance to us too. Reitzmag is not an enemy and we will not treat it as one just as we won't treat you as an enemy because you are not one ,we have no beef now with either nation.I'd like to remind you we held firm in Telum and you expelled us which came as a dissapointing great shock because we had a different oppinion on waters and also wanted to seek free trade treaties outside of Telum which was our right as it was not a customs union and never proposed to be one. Having said that we have decided we want to keep friendly and warm relations with Telum still as its by far best we all get along. We also didn't allow bombing outside of the bombing ranges which we already use for such practise, that area is not environmentally sensitive in any way so the target and bombing practise is fine and legal there its a range designed just for that purpose like you have yours. Maybe media gave the wrong impression from what I was told BBC put a bad headline out as it was a just a routine excercise liek we conducted many times with Telum forces. Honestly Reitzmag is not a threat to you and as we tell Reitzmag reguarly Innimicus ain't out to get Reitzmag and isn't a threat either we honestly believe this feud needs to end , its doing no one good."

[Inimicus]

Artabanos could see where this entire meeting was going. He had half a mind to show Peter Key the door now to save them both valuable time, but then again there were probably additional points they could discuss between them. "Prime Minister, you will currently not find us willing to discuss price caps or the explicit details of the Canal's finances. I tell you maintenance is budgeted at €200m, and you immediately squirm into a corner and telll Me this is not the case. For now -- and I stress the 'for now' part -- the Board will set its own pricing and will allow whatever ships through that it wants. I will remind you that extensive military facilities and dockyards have been constructed as part of the Canal, which were announced in plenty of time. I heard no objections from the Duchian government at that time.

"Frankly, the Imperial Government does not give a flying flamingo about whether you allowed the Reitzmen to bomb an existing range or a new range -- what it does care about is you were essentially played by them, and you co-operated in their delusions of region-wide grandeur. It is, of course, your prerogative to allow whoever you want to bomb whatever you want inside the borders of your own territory, but you should not be surprised when other nations raise eyebrows. As for the open hostility shown by Reitzmag to the Empire, we did indeed attempt to defuse the tension between us, only to then witness Reitzmic bombers obliterate a mountain range within a day's driving distance from a Telum ally's borders. Negotiations were then suspended, and have not reopened.

"But, sadly, I do not think we are getting anywhere at all at this point. Do you have any other specific prosposals for us?"

[BrumBrum]

John Peter Key could see there was no leeway he responded "Very well then but it does make it hard for us to justify excluding Caspian and Econ allies from using our canal it Telum powers can use the Artabonos Canal. Remember part of the deal of excluding military ships from the canal was if yours does the same. That is something to think about."

However he wanted to move on " What were propose is simple keep existing Telum economic zero tariff conditions, rights for our companies to operate in each others countries according to local law, keep the single telecomsfree roaming zone we had with with Telum , have the same education exchange programmes we had , have visa free requirements for tourism as before for our citizens and sharing of intelligence on crime and terrorism to help each other combat crime and provide an early warning if either of our nations detects a terror or criminal threat to the other country. How does that sound basically essentially keep the Telum economics and exchange policies we had before. We don't wish to to restrict or limit your businesses have reintroduction of market barriers on ours. We don't think that is good for either country. We are also open to immigration deals keeping you on a favoured nation list if you do the same for ours and give priority too. "

[Inimicus]

"I did not suggest 'Telum' will be able to use the Artabanos canal at will -- what I said was that the Board is not likely to want to sign up to restrictive agreements before the Canal even opens. Give it a while, and we shall see what can be done once we get a good sense of how the Canal even functions."

Artabanos paused. He had probably been too harsh this early into the meeting. It was one of His bad days, and tomorrow He'd be all jolly and happy again. Such a shame Peter Key would now remember Him as this grumpy, aggressive guy. Although, with the Duchies, that may not be such a terrible thing after all. "Gosh, well, you mention a whole list of things, John. Let's go through these things one by one, shall we. Zero tariff trade, deal -- excluding, of course, tolls and suchlike. As for visa-free travel, Duchies citizens already do not require an Inimician visa for non-work visits of 60 days or less -- I admit I'm not entirely aware of the rights of Inimicians in the UD, but we could standardise this if you like. Free roaming abroad is in quite a similar situation: Inimicus's largest carrier, Artabanet Inc, already does not charge roaming fees for any EU destination. Again, if you would like to standardise this, then that would largely be fine with us.

"The sharing of intelligence is a lot more contentious I feel, unfortunately. The Empire is, since the unfortunate events of summer 2020 during which, as you'll no doubt know, leaking of state intelligence to Neo-Venetian insurgents nearly led to My death, a lot more careful in choosing what information to share and with whom. With whom does the Duchies have intelligence sharing agreements at the present time and what form do these take?"

[BrumBrum]

John Peter Key "We have intelligence sharing with ECON and we pass on any intelligence we get of threats to Telum nations to Telum nation authorities. This is pretty standard practise for us as we don't want to watch while a plot we know about causes deaths of innocents. That is the sort of information we are talking , basically if Duchies detects a threat against your nation we tell you and vice versa in order to protect innocent civilians lives. Same with any major smuggling operations for example if we detect gun smuggling rings for example.Though in principle we'd warn any nation if they were under imminent threat of an attack that could harm innocent civillians." He hoped that Artabonos would see the value in continuing such arrangements as they had under Telum.

[Inimicus]

"Hmm, I see. Well you will understand, Prime Minister, that we would not want the Imperial intelligence services to conduct all their hard work only for people who we have no intention of sharing information with to get their hands on such information. So, perhaps we can agree to the following: the United Duchies and Inimicus shall share terrorism-related and law enforcement intelligence with one another, on the condition that such information is not passed on to any other nation's intelligence services by either of us. This way, we can ensure we can work together without compromising either of our respective alliances.

"Now, on to market barriers and limitations on Duchian and Inimician businesses -- what exactly did you have in mind?"

[BrumBrum]

The PM responded "Of course, intelligence would just be bi-lateral we have no need to share intelligence of a criminal or terrorist threat with 3rd parties. "

He responded to the question on barriers "We want to keep the zero tariffs and we would like basically to have equal market access to our businesses as long as they follow the laws of the country most likely requiring a limited subsidiary like is required in UD law if you want a physical presence so businesses get treated equally and businesses have to follow laws and regulations of each of our countries. This should keep a level playing field for our businesses by making them both follow the same sets of rules and regulations. We could also have offices to give advice to businesses on local regulations in each country you could set up one in Duchies to help businesses wanting to enter the marker and we in your country? What do you think?"

[Inimicus]

"Excellent, yes, that would work for Us on the intelligence front. I also have no objections to the economic and trade facilitation you proposed. However, Inimicus would always want to reserve the freedom to impose additonal regulations on foreign companies in times of crisis or need -- as I'm sure the United Duchies would, too. I suggest we can state such reservations in any agreements we sign today.

"Well, this is going swimmingly well -- perhaps apart from your canal proposals, that is. Were there any other matters you'd wish to discuss?"

[BrumBrum]

The PM responded "Of course as long as such regulations don't specifically target the other countries companies that would be fine as its simply meeting national legislation and requirements and is also required of the domestic companies to keep the playing field even , after all trade to be fair must make sure the playing field is level. This wouldn't for instance stop you from requiring public funds be spent with your own companies for instance or local companies to the public spending. I am sure we can agree on this.The only other major thing would be details of the visa free agreement I am suggesting it be 90 days for citizens of our nations between our nations and your citizens get to use our priority lines in airports, ports and stations in return for Duchians using your priority lines"