Kalistan

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Her Imperial Majesty Announces Reorientation
"Focus Should be on Anantonese Region", says Empress
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
November 12, 5589


Her Imperial Majesty Speaks before National Assembly

In a not completely unexpected announcement, Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina I Ananto called Kalistan's recent interventions into the Kundrati affair "a disaster for Kalistani Interests in the region" and vowed to focus her efforts closer to home. Below is an excerpt from Her Imperial Majesty's Address to the National Assembly.

With regard to Artanian affairs here, we do acknowledge that our response to that crisis was injurious to Kalistani interests in the world. We are currently speaking through back channels with the Government of Luthori concerning Likatonia, and it is our intention, assuming we receive the correct signals from Ft. William, to unilaterally drop the Anantonese Embargo against Likatonia. Whether they change their policy toward the Empire or not. We will also communicate to the Luthorian Government that if Likatonia is interested in re-establishing normal relations as a first step to ensuring that there is more regular and productive communication between the Imperial Government and their government, that is something that we would be interested in.

This change in stance is part of a reorientation of our Foreign Policy away from the internecine and seemingly interminable conflicts that both arise within Artania and are sent to the rest of the world by them. We can candidly say that attempting to influence events in Kundrati has been an unmitigated disaster for our Empire and a black spot on our otherwise decent record in foreign affairs. We will still maintain the sanctions against Kundrati for their embrace of fascism, but otherwise, we have decided to follow the Nationalists' advise in our National Legislature, and forego further involvement in Artania on any terms that are not explicitly favorable to the Empire.

While we re-orient, it is also our interest to begin to organize the Imperial Assembly. The Assembly will consist of representatives from each of the Constituent Nations who will be charged with meeting and offering us guidance on International Affairs. We feel as if, in some instances, Our Policy as Empress of Ananto and Kalistan has served to drag the Other Constituent Nations into things that they did not wholeheartedly support. And at the same time, our Constituent Nations could end up dragging Kalistan into a fight which is not of its own making. It is our considered opinion that none of the the Governments that operate under the Imperial Banner want that to the case, in anything. We believe that Lodamun should not be compelled to support something that it wouldn't support if it was Independent, just like we feel that Lodamun should not be able to compel Kalistan to support something that it would not similarly support if the two nations were not joined in the Empire.

The Imperial Assembly should meet, as per the terms laid out in the Articles of Empire, in Ciudad Gaduri, and should be a standing body of deliberation and discussion. And while nothing binds us to follow the considered decisions of that body, nonetheless we shall be able to see the feeling of the Constituent Nations in this Empire and will be able to use this as guidance for our own policy. We would like this body to operate as a supranational institution to ensure that all of our Constituent Nations have a voice in affairs that touch our entire Empire. And we hope that our Constituent Nations will take it seriously, use it for the purpose that it is intended, and allow it to help shape the policies of the individual constituent nations themselves going forward.

We feel that the development of an Imperial Assembly will help to keep imperial affairs, at least, focused in Seleya and the Anantonese Region, where they belong and where we can, to the highest degree possible, control the chaotic behavior of other nations outside of the Empire. We can also confidently say that had the Imperial Assembly been present in the first place, Kalistan might never have launched on this adventure in the first place.

Finally, we would like to begin exploring ways to finally bring Athosia into the Empire. We have asked our Foreign Minister to begin putting significant resources to the long standing national ambition of reunification of Suldanor. We would welcome the Government of Baltusia to begin considering integration into the Anantonese Empire, where it belongs with its brothers and sisters, and on the same terms as Gaduridos and Lodamun joined. It has long been the dream and the National Policy of this Empire to bring Athosia and Baltusia into the Empire, and it is time we begin to make that dream a national policy, and then, a reality."

Her Imperial Majesty's Comments received a standing ovation from the Nationalist faction of the Institutional Party, which nearly swept the most recent Kalistani elections. Some Deputies noted that this was what they had been waiting for from the Empress, while others began speaking with journalists about what Baltusian entry into the Empire might look like and how it might go about. At any rate, nearly all those this Paper spoke with were happy with Her Imperial Majesty's speech overall, and particularly rated the reorientation section as the one which resonated most with them. A recent poll also shows that the people are with Her Imperial Majesty: More than 65% of the more than 14,000 respondants of a Kalistani Republic interest poll stated that they wanted Her Imperial Majesty to focus more on Seleya than Artania, and an overwhelming 88% stated that they rated Baltusia as their single most important foreign policy goal, while fascism in Kundrati was at least top three in only 42% of responses.