Quote:Bundesrepublik Dundorf has a naval force, the Meridia Task Force, consisting of an amphibious assault ship, a signals intelligence ship, an oil tanker and 12 frigates, which have long operated with the Lourennais Royal Navy and Imperial Command of the Union of Canrille in maneuvers and naval engagements.
 
In view of the current difficulty in communicating through the current contact structure, the Admiral Commanding, Imperial Command, is recommending that Meridia Task Force be allowed to berth, repair, resupply  and refuel at a naval base in Communaute de Kanjor.
 
The Chief of Naval Operations has endorsed this proposal and suggested Torges as the proposed home port. This recommendation has been approved by the National Defense Staff and Defense Minister Marcel Augereau.  Naval air assets of Bundesrepublik Dundorf will also be permitted to use the naval air facilities at the Torges Naval Base.
 
The feeling in the Defense Ministry is that this step will make coordination of training, maneuvers and future operations by the National Navy and Imperial Command Headquarters with the Meridia Task Force much more effective.

Quote:Yes, but not because she has retired but because of new issues arising.  In Federation Canrille (FC) we had considered having the Council of Ministers or the Chamber of Deputies select the Governor General, but with the PSD and UHD now running viable candidates we are planning to continue to support having a popularly elected head of state.
 
I am calling on Finance Minister Fabrice Courbet to form a government and his plan is to only draw from FC Deputies for this electoral cycle since we have a solid majority.  We do not have 2/3 so structural changes will be a matter of persuasion. Three such are coming since both PSD and UHD support the proposals. 
 
One is upping the membership of the Chamber of Deputies from 387 to 390. Why? Understanding the math on voting outcome at a glance rather than needing pencil and paper.  Another is running the nation as a unified state rather than maintain the few vestiges of federalism.
 
The third is making each seat in the Chamber of Deputies represent about the same number of citizens rather than have same number for each Province.  Again we do have PSD and UHD support for this measure.
 
The other primary change is after a number of years there is now considerable interest in the Union of Canrille.  We are expecting to be reviewing proposals quite soon. It may well be that it can be more than a humanitarian and defensive alliance with occasional spurts of economic cooperation. We shall see.
 
Paul – Henri Bourmont will be staying on as Foreign Minister, Jerome Vandamme will remain Interior Minister, Trade Minister Roxanne Marvaux will move to Finance and Admiral Antioine Suchet will be Defense Minister.

Quote:Need to understand where coming from.  For a number of years, Kanjor has generally favored a live and let live approach to foreign affairs preferring to stay out of other people’s business.   Except for two things.  We did want to trade with most everybody, and we have wanted to be associated with other Canrillaise nations often having the Lourennais monarch as ours to further this concept. Beyond that I will say we favored using the World Congress as a place to handle disputes until it ceased to function and have pretty much always been opposed to nuclear weapons.
 
Our entry into the Union of Canrille or Canraillaise Empire was at a time when Lourenne was the preeminent economic and military power on Terra. Terra was largely divided into competing blocs and as the humanitarian alliance was easily the most attractive. With Lourenne going into isolation, the economic and military power of the Union of Canrille was considerably reduced.
 
Reduced but not eliminated.  Kanjor decided the pieces were worth picking up. Kanjor has long been more involved in economic cooperation than military adventures and has been involved and continues to be involved with our Canrillaise Seleyan neighbors in projects for mutual economic benefit.
 
These could have occurred without the Union of Canrille, but some military sources of military defense could not have been. Four fleets built and operated by Lourenne are still under the command of Imperial Command Headquarters , a part of the Union of Canrille. Two are now in the budgets of Kanjor and Alduria while the other two are maintained by the interest on funds held by the Bank of Canrille, also a part of the Union of Canrille as is the military satellite surveillance system of the Union of Canrille also operating under Imperial Command Headquarters.
 
The Union of Canrille has been and can continue to be a great impetus toward economic cooperation for mutual benefit.  There is currently a drive toward greater unity and it is expected members of the Union will be adopting measures to facilitate a joint foreign policy and defense policy.  Communaute de Kanjor is fully supporting this concept.

Quote:The Union Hosien - Democrate (UHD) introduced a bill to change the name of our nation to its more traditional name of Royaume Uni de Kanjor.  As a move to amend the governmental structure it will require 2/3 to pass.  Federation Canrille (FC) supports this change; probably something we should have attended to earlier.
 
We expect the Parti Social – Democrate (SPD) to oppose this measure but between the UHD and FC there are enough votes for it to pass. We believe this will be well received by the Sovereign People.

Quote:FC may just support it.  But we are considering amending the bill instead  to raise the floor on all the categories rather than lower the rates. This would be a significant income tax reduction. You may remember when we were formed it was to combat confiscatory income tax rates.  We have done that but we would like to go from tolerable to about right.
 
As you know there has been talk of taxing investment income as ordinary income for income tax purposes.  We think instead we will be taxing capital gains and interest income generally.  We will be specific but it will certainly include sale of business ownership such as stock shares, partnership and sole proprietorship interests, and interest on bonds.  The rates  will be low enough to be a mild irritant but not an outright deterrent to investment. We will endeavor to avoid ambiguity as to what is subject to corporate tax rate and what is subject to capital gains tax  but do expect tax lawyers to bill for quite a lot the next few years.  We expect a  Union Hosien- Democrate (UHD) bill to introduce a corporate tax rate reduction and our plan is to introduce an amendment doing what I have described.
 
Then there are estate taxes. Which are rather high. What we are planning is drafting a bill lowering the rates and raising the floor for taxation of each level. At the same time, we are planning to cap the allowable annual gift allowance and taxing overage.  Theoretically this will be classic pay me now or pay me later but we know tax attorneys will find ways to reduce tax liability as they always do. 
 
So looks like three bills will be going forward. They will lower income, corporate and estate tax rates but broaden the tax base. We are aiming at revenue neutral.  Think we will see PSD rather happy with overall tax picture and UHD less so.

Quote:Quite frankly, we have to live with waiting for tax reform to again produce enough surplus to get to next focused push and with probability a military priority is going to be that next focus, specifically applying Soteira radar technology to units which do not have it,
 
But meeting today was to identify long term goals for energy policy.  Silliers and Numineux Provinces have nuclear generated electricity. The others have hydroelectric power.  All Provincial electrical  grids are supplemented by wind and solar generated electric power.  Our long term goal is to have nuclear generated power in all Provinces but this may be a quite long term goal; it is not a short term goal.
 
We have ongoing contracts for importing plenty of petroleum both as gasoline and crude oil to fuel our transportation needs.  We have a refinery in Numineux province.  South Seleyan Oil and Gas (SSOG)  has shares in a Rildanorean company whose oil rig blew up but also has Qat Oil Services, a long established Majatran oil driller, armed with a contract with that company to explore and exploit certain potential oil fields.  SSOG is looking into whether this arrangement is sufficient to allow oil and gas exploitation in the Odufart Sea as an option.
 
But what we really want to do is reduce use of fossil fuels.  Elimination is unlikely and certainly impractical for the foreseeable future; but reduction is quite possible.  Getting people into electric vehicles is something we can help to increase.
 
What we decided is when we have an opportunity we will try to increase the use of electric farm equipment used throughout Royaume Uni de Kanjor by loans, loan guarantees and grants. A good start has been made in Numineux and some are in use in Martois and Val d’Azur Provinces.
 
We will be revisiting electric passenger vehicles which incidentally we export but supplying powering stations outside Numineux Province for them is not going to be our next focus.