Kalistan

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FM responds positively to Egelion's Overtures
"Empress is interested in talks," says Harney
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
May 12, 5702


FM Harney addresses Egelion's opening to Kalistan

Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister, Sir Thomas Harney is expected to fly to Altea to for the preliminary round of talks in an attempt to repair the rift with Egelion. "Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has been generally favorable toward the idea of talking with Egelion to determine whether the ice between our two nations can be broken," said Sir Harney in Kaliburg this week. "To that end, I will fly to Altea to learn the Egelian's mind on a few points, to see if there is mutual ground which would make the Empress' participation a productive use of her time."

The Foreign Minister characterized the scrap somewhat differently than the Egelian newspaper announcing the invitation did. "Well, we did learn about this invitation from the newspaper, because we obviously have closed other diplomatic channels between our two nations," he said. "But to be clear, our reasons for taking the actions we did in Kalistan were not confusing to us at all. The Embassy was closed to protest Egelion's involvement in a war on the other side of the planet. There is a history there that we were working from: Kalistan opposed Egelion's involvement in Rildanor too. When an expansionistic Empire to our north does things far from home without even warning us that its going down, that sends red flags.

"Her Imperial Majesty recalled our diplomats in protest, and we offered theirs safe passage out of our nation. Nobody was injured in the process and everything was done respectfully and peacefully, and then we haven't talked since then. Her Imperial Majesty said no to further sanctions against Egelion, but Egelion responded by threatening the Naval Logistics Center in Luncasi, violating the agreements we had concluded with the Government of NEKK that proceeded the founding of the Kerisian Empire, and which Egelion had themselves acknowledged in the treaty ending the NEKK war. Their ships are still operating near the base as we speak, though the First Regular Navy has returned to base. But we have not spoken nor have Her Imperial Majesty and the Egelian Emperor appeared in the same place internationally since then."

The Foreign Minister said he and a small team of lower level administrators from different Government agencies, including Defense, Finance and IBSI will travel to Altea to begin laying out the ground work for further talks. "I have very limited authority in this situation," said Sir Harney. "I am there to present a message of optimism from Her Imperial Majesty, as well as make it known that unless we enter into this discussion as equals, there can be no final agreement. Kalistan does not wish to help Egelion on its imperialist project. Quite frankly we have enough to do with our own imperial project to be relegated to the role of supporting actor in someone else's. This is not to say we don't have a lot to talk about, and can't come away with something that is mutually beneficial, but there has to be equality in the outcome for both sides, or its no good. I am just really being given the authority to make that happen and not much more in this first meeting. Once we get that figured out we will learn whether it would be productive for Her Imperial Majesty then to go and drive the agreement home."

The FM says the point in Egelion's list of priorities that interests the Empress most is the regularity of military communication. "The Empress believes that a lot of the decisions that drive Egelian policies internationally are made behind the scenes, and Kalistan finds itself blindsided by things often, learning about them in the news paper long after it is too late for Kalistan to develop contingencies revolving around our own interests. If Egelion has the desire to have a global projection capability, that's not something we can, or will do much about, but that will also always affect Kalistani security. And so Kalistan will always need to respond. Categorically--every single time. In a lot of ways the fates of our nations are tied by proximity. And so Kalistan would simply ask that when Egelion is doing things that will necessarily affect Kalistani security, which is basically every single military thing they ever do, whether it be in Keris, or Dovani or Majatra, that they communicate with us behind the scenes so that we can make our own preparations for the heat they are drawing on this region and the possible retaliations this region will experience from their actions, rather being blindsided with the news through the international press. It's courteous and it is how nations which are friendly and cooperating toward one another should treat one another."

The other issues are all worthy of discussing he said. "The Empress is content to let the Egelians set the agenda for the meeting. It is their invitation, and Her Imperial Majesty is at least interested in responding to it to see if we can't thaw things a bit. Kalistan and Egelion have had a long and rocky history, but the fact is that we are both next door neighbors with radically different orientations. Disagreement is to be expected, but Her Imperial Majesty does not believe that those local disagreements should over ride a larger, regional concern for security and cooperation. Such a cooperation may be needed in the near future, depending on how other matters in places like Majatra and Artania end up playing out. And we do have lots of areas where there has historically been mutual respect and cooperation, we have a long history of that as well. So we are focusing on success and understanding, and hopefully we can put this particular episode to rest."

The FM concluded by saying that, despite their bellicose and rather personal public statements at the start of the issue, the Empress thanks the Egelians for allowing time for things to cool off, without further escalation while Egelion handled their imperial business in Dovani, and said he personally looks forward to the trip.