Friendly Gossip
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CONFIDENTIAL SPANISH-INIMICIAN SUMMIT
Telum, March 8th 2021
Imperial Foreign Officer Sarah Gladwell & Imperial Consul Christopher Strathclyde
If there was one thing Sarah Gladwell disliked more than flying, it was waiting for a flight to arrive. Fidgeting with a coin in her pocket, Sarah leant to the right to check through the Telum Imperial Aerodrome windows, waiting for the Spanish to arrive. This did not go unnoticed to Lord Christopher Strathclyde, whose perceptual abilities likened those of a hawk. Christopher's dislike of Sarah was outclassed only by his appreciation of her political abilities. She was reliable, dependent, trustworthy, and above all, ruthless. Nevertheless, she had kept an image of innocence, of steadfastness, of non-involvement with the struggles and strifes behind the doors of the Imperial Palace. It was admirable to the utmost.
Despite all that, Sarah's fidgety behaviour was nearly intolerable to Christopher. "Would you excuse me for just a moment?", he said, before taking an overly long bathroom break. By the time he got back, the Spanish plane was at the gate, and Sarah was even more relentlessly anxious. Christopher knew she would stop the moment the Spanish delegates turned the corner of the gate entrance, though -- her professionalism was unmatched. Plus, they had important matters to discuss. One of Spain's and Inimicus's closest allies, the United Duchies, had descended into political repression and mass protests since the crisis in the Union of Syndicates. Although the Imperial Government was no stranger to surveillance, the draconian privacy laws passed in the Duchies were concerning to all other Treaty of Telum signatories. Something had to be done.
As Christopher predicted, the first sight of the Spanish representatives appearing in the Aerodrome turned Sarah into the stonewalled, clean, ruthless persona she always was. Work was on.
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Madrid, 8th March 2021
It was a busy day in Madrid today. The President had to complete the summit before 16 o'clock Spanish time, so he could arrive on time to the demonstrations at Madrid because of Women's Day. He had been attending to that demonstrations since he was elected President of the Partido Popular, and he was expected to go this year again. That's why he departed so early in the morning towards Inimicus, where Sarah Gladwell and Christopher Strathclyde were waiting for him. Sarah wasn't a stranger for the Spanish President, nor was Lord Christopher, whom he got to know in the Emperor Artabanos' Welcome Back Party. While Sarah was the person to contact if you had a problem and wanted Inimicus to help you and the one that was received by him in Moncloa, while Lord Christopher was the Emperor's right hand, or that's what the President thought.
The plane departed from Torrejón de Ardoz at 8:30 on the morning, with an hour and a half flight time awaiting Jesús. Before taking off, he saw the Nofoagan Airbus 400M, which was parked in Torrejón as part of an agreement with the Nofoagan Government. He then took off and one of his secretaries gave him the daily press resume. "Thanks Mateo, I'll give them a look" Said the President similing to his secretary, who went back to his seat and kept working. The press today was talking about Women's day and oh well, Luis Bárcenas. Mr. Bárcenas was an old treasurer of the Partido Popular, who managed irregular money and used some illegal credit cards. He had many compromising papers about Mariano Rajoy and mostly the entire section of the old guard, some of them were still in the Partido Popular and in the Government. "Mariano, please tell me you didn't lie to me when I asked you about this and be sure of not receiving any single amount of irregular money", thought the President to himself.
Of course, the President wasn't alone, as he decided to travel with the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Alfonso Dastis. Alfonso was very experienced when it came to international summits, and even if he wasn't used to travel with Jesús Aguilar, he was always there to offer himself when needed. Today, it was a special day for him: he had been ready the Treaty of Telum, which meant he had to be there. He approached to the President when the plane was just due to land: "Jesús, we are about to start the approach." Jesús answered the Minister: "Sit here, next to me. I need you to tell me about what you got from your work". Said Aguilar. The plane landed In Telum Imperial Aerodrome. Then, the Spanish turned the corner and there they were, Sarah and Lord Christopher.
The Spanish President approached to them and shook hands, then was Dastis doing the same. "Ms. Gladwell, Lord Christopher, it is nice to see you both again, in your country, the Empire of Inimicus. I think we are both worried about the political repression and the protests taking place in one of our closer allies. It is indeed a critical situation we should look into, and I'm very happy to see how fast we have reacted. Also, I wanted to gift you a ham leg, which I have taken with me on the plane. There's also another one for the Emperor, I hope he likes it." Said the President, smiling.
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"A Spanish ham", thought Christopher Strathclyde, "Right, time to put my pretend-like face on." He smiled. But when he saw and, more importantly, smelled the ham, his fake smile turned into a real one. "Ah, well, Mr Aguilar", he said, "Thank you, so much, for these wonderful gifts. If you er, if you give the other leg meant for His Imperial Majesty to me, I er, I will make sure it gets into the right place..."
After handing both ham legs to Strathclyde's aide, the joint delegation proceeded through the airport. However, much unlike past state visits, the Spanish delegates were not shown to the press room, were not guided through Special Arrivals, and were not taken to a bombastic motorcade sporting bonnet flags of both nations. Instead, Christopher explained that as this meeting was to be in secret, they would be using a specially-designed suburban railway platform that would take them straight to the Imperial Palace. "It's interesting actually", Strathclyde began, and Sarah knew a history rant was coming, "The tunnel we're about to travel through was originally used by former Presidents of Inimicus, before the 2011 revolution, to smuggle banned goods into the Palace. Banned goods, and, well, banned people, if you know what I mean..."
A short one-car train awaited them at the platform, which was completely separated from the normal passenger platforms by concrete and brick. "After you, Mr President, Minister", Sarah said and extended her hand towards the open doors. As soon as everyone was aboard, the car started moving, driverless, and built up an immense speed before, after around 10 minutes, slowly stopping. "The next stop is: Imperial Palace", Christopher imitated. "Perhaps his weak spot is trains?", thought Sarah, who for years had been attempting to find some dirt on Christopher, while making sure he could not find any on her.
An elevator led the delegation to the very heart of the Imperial Palace, just off the Throne room. "If you'll remember, Mr President", Christopher began, "This is where His Imperial Majesty hosted the Welcome Back celebrations you attended. Anyway, this is obviously not where we'll be meeting, so please do follow me."
Turning a corner, the delegation was suddenly met by an unexpected gathering: tourists. As soon as the visitors knew who had just showed up, they whipped out cameras and phones and selfie sticks in an attempt to get a shot of the Spanish-Inimician discussions. Shouting something to the security staff on hand, Christopher swiftly led the Spaniards to a different route, and the last they saw of the tourists was security officers closing in on them. "Worry not, Mr President. They'll be dealt with. No one will ever know you're here. Anyway, here we are! Our meeting room."
The delegates each took seats at the oval oak table arranged for them. Glasses of water set on beige napkins accompanied the gold-plated scenery, which Christopher and Sarah had still not got used to. "Well, Mr President", Christopher began, "Now we're all settled, shall we proceed to the matter at hand? What are Spain's main concerns surrounding the United Duchies, and their role as a partner in the Treaty of Telum?"
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President Aguilar followed Sarah and Christopher along with Alfonso Dastis throught the airport. As it was a secret meeting, the Spanish were taken to the specially-designed suburban railway. Aguilar listened carefully to the data Lord Strathclyde told them about the train, and Juncker came out to his mind as soon as the Inimican Lord started to talk about the tunnel and everything. It was like if the former Internal Affairs Commissioner and trains were related somehow, but maybe it was because of the Eurostar, now called Eurorail project, which he managed to open before leaving the office, such an achievement. "This is very interesting, Lord Strathclyde, and it is great you are acting like a touristic guide today because I love to know the details of the things I get to see in my trips. Inimicus, indeed, never stops surprising me, that might be one of the main reasons why I was thinking to come here with my family next summer and have a trip around the country."
After some nice conversation, during the trip, and Christopher imitating the robotic voice of the train, the President and the Inimicans, got to the throne room. Aguilar did indeed remember this one very well, as the Welcome Back celebrations Emperor Artabanos hosted were amazing. How could he forget? "I indeed remember those celebrations perfectly, Christopher. They were impressive to me, and believe me when I say I learnt a lot of things about organising celebrations and parties. The one that was held in Ibiza after the Spanish Anniversary day ended up with foreign leader being kidnapped by a Red Croatian citizen and some incidents, as well as the current Archbishop of Inquista, Mikaela Klienberg, getting to know her husband as of now, El Capitán Juan-Bernardo Fernández Velázquez." Said the President.
After the encounter with the tourists, the President felt more relaxed after Christopher's words, to which he nooded. Dastis, who had been silent during the trip, decide to speak up a little bit: "Thank you Lord Stratchclyde. The team in Moncloa is already struggling to justify this trip, and some sources told us someone photographed the Presidential plane departing will he was doing plane-spotting in Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas Airport, somekind of close to the Air Base we share, Torrejón." Then, both entered to the meeting room, where the Spanish delegation took a seat and listened to Christopher's words.
It was clear the United Duchies was going to be the hotspot of this meeting, but Dastis, at the same time, needed to look a bit further. While the United Duchies was more than a simple strategical ally to them, the Caspian Crisis could give them a chance to increase their presence in the Caspian aswell. 3 days ago, Dastis received a secret offer, not even the President knew about it, to deploy some Patrol Boats on the Caspian and share a base in the United Duchies is Reitzmag didn't back down. Maybe, it was time to tell those there about that offer, and look into the chance they had. While Dastis thought about this, the President spoke: "I think our concerns might be already predictable, Lord Strathclyde. On a hand, we have the political repression concern, and this one is the worst we could have, honestly. Inimicus, nor Spain, can afford their well-managed and well-deserved reputation to go into pieces just because the Duchies Government is saying their left parties are guilty of the pain of thousands over there. We also have the new Security law passed, which we made pressure on to achieve its amending, and it seems it worked, but still that's something never seen in Europe. I could have expected from countries like Reitzmag as they are always concerned about their security and they think they will be attacked anytime sooner, but not from the United Duchies. But, in the other hand, the canal access is worth some silence, as that allows your navy, for example, to travel to North Diessen is they request your help, or would allow the Spanish army to come on their aid and yours aswell. And it's not only the canal access: military equipment, trade, the Eurorail itself. Something needs to be done, but we need to think our moves carefully; that's why the Spanish Councillor, Donald Tusk, did telephone me last Friday to ask me about doing a Privacy act or something like that to avoid these kinds of measures taken by the Duchies."
Dastis spoke after the President, something Aguilar did not expect: "Furthermore, I need to add something. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation received a request from the Duchies to send some patrol boats to the Caspian in exchange of sharing a base, which we proposed because the Spanish support is worth it. We accepted, and maybe this could be a great chance for us to look deeper at what is really going on over there. Maybe we need our own soldiers to test everything around there and think about being or not being concerned."
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Christopher Strathclyde's sense for intrigue and plotting were put on high alert after Minister Dastis's words. "Are you suggesting, Mr Dastis, we use these Spanish patrol boats to infiltrate the United Duchies' military and political structure? This... this would be paramount to hostile espionage. I want to be absolutely certain this is what you are, in fact, proposing." It was an interesting suggestion. The Duchies were, for reasons beyond the Imperial Government's control, among the nations the Empire had the least military intelligence on, which was strange especially given the fairly tight-knit relationship between the two states. But the Spanish plan brought with it a large number of risks.
Risks which Sarah Gladwell, ever cautious and prudent, was all too willing to elaborate on. "Mr Dastis, Mr Aguilar, although I can assure you your words will not leave this room, you must understand that what you are proposing is tantamount to treason. Treason against the Treaty of Telum, but also against international law. Now, I don't know what specifics you are proposing, but the gains we are set to get from the entire operation must be immense, if we are to go through with such a risky strategy."
Christopher stood up, the telltale sign of him thinking, and grabbed a pastry from the buffet in the corner of the room. "We will allow you to elaborate, Mr Dastis, on your proposal. For now, I think we should consider more diplomatic means first. It is rumoured fifteen thousand left-wing activists are currently either in custody or have fled, some even being housed in hotels, for goodness' sake. The Imperial Government believes that we should, as a first step, issue a joint statement warning the United Duchies that, lest it stop this course of political repression immediately, we may be forced to suspend certain parts of the Telum treaty. I'm sure we could get the Confederal Government of North Diessen to agree. Practically, they'll do anything we wan--- er, yeah, well, should not have said that. Anyway..."
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Dastis, as it was obvious, wasn't proposing that. Spying the United Duchies did not just put in risk the Treaty of Telum, but the whole Spanish reputation. He needed to explain himself a little bit better: "No no no, I am not suggesting that, it would be a crazy idea with no real possibility of getting something. What I am proposing is, instead of spying them, test their system. The Spanish soldiers over there will possibly have to go through the self-identification process the new law established. If we could get some comments or, instead, some testimonies about how the whole affair works, we could understand it better and take further measures if needed"
Aguilar, who was kind of embarrased about the misunderstanding, spoke: "I'm pretty sorry for this misunderstanding. I do agree with you we need to be more cautious and use another diplomatic ways, like those we used to force an exemption on tourists. While I think the statement warning along with North Diessen is a nice idea, we could also try to reach the Council and listen to the Duchian councillor. I highly doubt the Duchies' Government will ignore our joint statement, but we could take this to Europolis and make them explain ourselves and the rest of Europe, which will surely be concerned about this, what the real purpose of the mass arrests and the new security law is."
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"Ah", said Lord Christopher, moderately embarrassed, "I see. Erm, well, you'll have to excuse me for my interpretation, Mr Dastis. My mind has been entirely geared to covert operations recently, as I'm sure you'll understand with the Neo-Venetian thing going on..." He laughed nervously, and stood up to get another glass of water. Stupid. Immensely stupid, he thought to himself. Of course the Spanish, ever righteous and fair, wouldn't have proposed spying on an ally. Then again, was what they really were proposing that much different? "Testing" the Duchies' system, in other words, covertly gathering intelligence, in other words, spying. Hmm. Perhaps this wasn't sucha bad thing after all.
In Lord Strathclyde's absence, Sarah Gladwell took over negotiations. *"Inimicus still has a blanket travel ban to the United Duchies following recent terror attacks. Travel is only allowed for strictly essential business. It is therefore hard for Inimician operatives to assist you with your "testing" plans, Mr Aguilar. Although, of course, given the Empire's close proximity to the Duchies, our material and manpower support for your plans would be at your disposal. Tell me -- how would you specifically intend to "test" the UD's new privacy legislation? How would you go about this?"
Sarah directed some aides to start drafting a joint statement, as the delegates agreed to, and briefly glanced towards the corner of the room, where Lord Strathclyde was taking a suspiciously long time to fill up his glass.
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Dastis detected that nervous laugh from Lord Christopher, but didn't give it much relevance. He accepted the apologies from him and said: "I perfectly understand, Lord Stratchclyde, with the Neo-Venetian conflict going on right now, I can feel what you are going through right now. But don't worry, apologies accepted." Said the Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Minister, before listening to Sarah's comments on the matter. The Inimicans seemed confused in Dastis' opinion, as there was no way Spain would spy the United Duchies. Aguilar saw his Minister's face and thought he needed to move on from this topic as soon as possible:
"What we are proposing, Ms Gladwell, is simply accomplishing with the new Duchies regulation and collecting the experiences of the Spanish Army over there. As far as I'm concerned, everyone entering the Duchies needs to be registered into their system, so if our military goes through that, they will be able to tell us about how things work with the new system, just that. But, moving on, maybe we should condemn the arrests of the leftist politicians and try to reach out someone who is not comfortable with these actions, maybe the Duchies Councillor, James Mizrachi-Roscoe could be the man we are searching for? A Minister in the Duchies' Government?"
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Lord Christopher came back to the table after the spying mishap, and rejoined negotiations. "Yes, I would feel that leaving this issue for later would probably be wise, Mr Dastis", he started, "Let's move on swiftly to a joint statement of some kind. I would be apprehensive to contacting a single entity behind the Duchies government and relaying our concerns that way, although Spain is of course free to do so by itself and, if you do, you would be free to say the Imperial Government supports your actions. Nevertheless, I feel a joint statement by our government, in tandem with the Confederal government of North Diessen, would achieve the most here. This would not only tell the Duchies, but also our other partners and neighbours in the region, that we mean business. What do you think?"
Sarah continued on the point of a discussion with James Roscoe: "Are you positive Cllr Mizrachi-Roscoe is uncomfortable with the current arrests and privacy issues? We risk him going straight to the Duchies administration with our complaints, in which case we would be far removed from a peaceful, positive solution to this conflict. What made you suggest his name?"
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Dastis answered: "Of course, Lord Strathclyde, a joint statement between the Confederacy of North Diessen, the Empire of Inimicus and the Kingdom of Spain is a solution we could do and would show concern about the latest political repression in the Duchies. Of course, we will need to use some other words instead, maybe something like "the huge decrease of left-wing political activists and representatives". At the end, what we want is warning the United Duchies about the consequences their actions could have in a friendly but serious way, being harsh when it comes to the actions taken by their Government but softly because they are our allies... This will be difficult, of course, but I'm pretty confident about what we could get together, Lord Christopher" Said Dastis, thinking on a way to say the things both Christopher and himself wanted to say, but not being too harsh towards their Duchies friends. If he got an idea, he wrote it on a piece of paper he was given, in order to make a statement from those words.
Aguilar, meanwhile, was focused on the discussion with Sarah Gladwell about the Duchies Councillor, James Mizrachi-Roscoe. His name was something Jesús had already planned, and using his current health status as a thing to get some confidence was something they could use and not use at the same time: "I am, Sarah, but I can assure you he won't be able to go straight to the Duchies administration, basically because he can't exit the hospital right now. He was a victim of the attack and he is not as right-wing as his government, he is more like me or the liberals of Ciudadanos, so he will likely be opposed to it. That, and also some information I got about his thoughts on these measures. I'm pretty confident we can get something out of him, maybe Cllrs. Tusk and Benfield would like to have a nice meeting with him, don't you think?"
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"Mr Dastis, my aides have taken the liberty to draw up the following statement.", said Christopher, and from the corner of the room an assistant appeared, and handed the representatives a few papers. Christopher slid a copy of the draft joint statement to Mr Dastis and gave him a few moments to read it over. "I think this statement strikes the right balance between cordiality and a serious warning, do you not? Naturally, if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear."
"Now, as for this meeting with Roscoe", Sarah Gladwell continued, "Cllr Benfield is currently, well, not up for any additional duties, given that he is an appointed councillor, he should keep as low a profile as possible. Cllr Tusk is more than welcome to meet with Roscoe, however, and perhaps you can report back on his findings?" That was a good enough excuse -- intrigue was all good and well, Sarah thought, but international intrigue, with a mission not designed by anyone in the Imperial Government, was simply too risky. "Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"
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Aguilar and Dastis read the draft joint statement and the President made a comment: "That's nice, I think it is what we were searching for. Congratulations, Lord Christopher, you and your aides have done it once again, great job. Also Ms. Gladwell, I'll report back on Councillor Tusk's finding as soon as he manages to contact with the Duchian Councillor. Just one last thing, I assumed all the Governments will post this statement. Am I right?"
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