Kalistan

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Kalistan enforces Personna Non Grata order against Egelion
"We are not imposing additional sanctions on Egelion at this point," said Chancellor
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
June 16, 5699


A touchy Chancellor answers questions in the National Assembly

"What is ridiculous is that a commoner and a member of the Press thinks he has the right to criticize the Empress," snapped the Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue at a reporter who called the policy of Personna Non Grata without accompanying sanctions "ridiculously ineffective" as a short Press Conference in the lobby of the National Assembly. The Press Conference, originally intended to give an update to the enactment of the Personna Non Grata order, went sideways soon after it started as reporters pressed the Chancellor to provide answers about why she wasn't doing what many believe is necessary to effectively punish Egelion. To date, there have been no arrests or deportations, suggesting that Egelion has either gotten their diplomats and personnel out of the country, or the Kalistani Government is not actively enforcing the law. The Chancellor, who was visibly annoyed at the criticism, had had enough when the reporter, from the journal The National asked the question.

"You people seem to forget where we live," said the Chancellor. "This government does as it is ordered by Her Imperial Majesty, and she directed me specifically to hold off on additional sanctions until we can see if the Egelians respond. We have received no word from them whatever way, but she still insists that there may be some hope to salvage a rapidly deteriorating relationship between our two nations anyway. So we do what she commands." She then made the matter personal. "It is the height of audacity for you, a reporter to think you are in a place to criticize Her Imperial Majesty's fiat like this!"

The comments came after a particularly tense exchange where different reporters were demanding information about why more information about sanctions were not forthcoming. "I told you people a hundred times, we have not settled on appropriate sanctions yet," said the Chancellor. "On the one hand, Egelion attacked the nation of New Verham, a neutral nation where Egelion possesses no vital or even ascertainable interests. They did so without even informing Kalistan, who they have long claimed to be allied with, leaving us completely in the dark about matters that directly affect regional security, and there is no doubt that people in New Verham were killed as a result of their attacks. But on the other hand, they have publicly then come along and said their only goal was to seize the airport to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery, a point which has been independently confirmed.

"So--since we no longer have open channels with the Egelian Government and haven't heard word one about their goals in the region, or security cooperation, we are left to try to figure it out ourselves. It's like doing a crossword puzzle without any clues, and being expected to complete it perfectly. The fact is, we never know what Egelion is doing until after they have done it. They don't feel they owe us any consideration at all to even let us know what they are doing so Kalistan doesn't get concerned. They just expect us to assume that they are acting in good faith when we have not seen evidence that they ever act unless they profit from it."

The Chancellor also responded to accusations of paranoia by Kalistan's internationalists. "And yet its ironic that when we say something is happening, the go-to, and incredibly irritatingly annoying knee jerk reaction is 'Oh Ericka Donahue is just being paranoid...' as an attempt to completely invalidate our concerns because history is hitting people right in the face and they can't put us down any other way. And nonetheless the thing we say is happening is actually happening. Kalistani intelligence is actually quite good and gets almost all those calls right; it just takes a while to see it play out in the press, if it ever does. This is the common refrain for those who think Kalistan should just go along with things, bend the knee, completely abandon their own national interests, and embrace a new global order led by a nation we simply do not trust and who has zero regard whatsoever for Kalistan."

Paranoia, she said "...is based on entirely unfounded or hallucinatory fears. Our policies are based on solid intelligence and historical example. Since we can't take the word of most nations, who are deliberately dishonest about what they are doing, we therefore have to rely on what we can see, and an unprovoked attack against a neutral state on the other side of the globe by a power who has already demonstrated their active desire to take chunks of the world for their empire over and over again under the pretense of humanitarian intervention is just something we cannot ignore. You can call it paranoia if you like, but I think you just don't know what that word means."

The Chancellor said sanctions would likely not be enforced. "At the end of the day, Her Imperial Majesty will likely not impose sanctions because she does not believe other nations will join us" said Lady Donahue. "Egelion is now in a position internationally where other nations fear to get on its bad side, and the cowed always run to their master's side when they are called. Even those nations who sent strongly worded letters to Egelion yesterday will maintain 100 percent support for their actions today. It will not change at all, and so far Egelion has only 'humanitarily intervened' in nations that it can take easy advantage of. At the end of the day, their theft of the naval base in Rildanor, or their virtual annexation of Kizenia didn't affect the spheres of interest of anyone who is in any position to do much about it. New Verham will be no different."

According to the Chancellor, Her Imperial Majesty is of the mind that threatened sanctions will actually only hurt Kalistan, but won't elicit notice in Egelion at all. "We are actively diverting trade away from Egelion already, and do not invest in them, nor do they invest in us, so there is no effect. We don't cooperate on military or intelligence sharing. So what is there even to sanction? We kick the Egelian language institute out of Kaliburg? Why? Her Imperial Majesty thinks that is the one good thing Egelion ever did with Kalistan. And besides, Kalistan has seen this movie before when we tried to maintain sanctions on Kundrati and the rest of the world, Egelion included, completely turned their backs on us and let us bear the burden by ourselves while they still actively traded with and coddled fascists."

At the end of the truncated press conference, the Chancellor got to the heart of the matter. "There is no basis for trust between Kalistan and Egelion. Absolutely none. Her Imperial Majesty may have wanted to try to repair relations with Egelion at some point, but she learned at that time, I think that Egelion would have only done so on their own terms, and the Empress left the meeting at Verastella following her coronation more uncertain about where Kalistan stood with Egelion than when she arrived. I think this extreme militarism in New Verham has confirmed for her that Egelion has no intention of being a regional partner, because that would require Egelion to see Kalistan as an equal, and they clearly never will. Whether she moves forward on sanctions or not, she is convinced now that they do not, and they never will, even acknowledge our existence. So there is really no point in her continuing to try any longer."

The Chancellor then ended the press conference but took a final question as she left. Asked how Kalistan and Egelian relations will look going forward from here, she simply said "Like Trigunia..." which does not bode well at all for the future of the Northern Anantonese. The 1st Fleet remains on alert and deployed both north of Ananto and south of Luncasi in case Egelion decides to also launch an unprovoked attack against Kalistan.

@TheRepublic