Kalistani Major History

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Foreign Minister Frazier Returns with Major Economic Victory
Plans for new Steel Consortium end Steel Competition, establish Cooperation with Yingdala
Kaliburg, Ananto
December 20, 4910


A Confident Lila Ann Frazier proposes New Comprehensive Steel Treaty to National Assembly

Lila Ann Frazier has kept a low profile for nearly a decade. Most will be unaware that the Foreign Minister has been working closely with the Yingdalan Government during much of this time to hammer out a treaty that aims at resolving outstanding difficulties around steel production in Western Seleya. But upon returning home from her most recent trip to Kalistan's primary rival over the last decade, with draft Treaty in hand, Frazier now demonstrates the value of shrewdness and fortitude. The Treaty, recently concluded between high level officials of both Yingdala and The Republic of Kalistan sets up what is perhaps Terra's first international Steel Cartel, aiming at ensuring cooperation between the two main steel producers, and ending a decade-long undeclared economic war.

"We are very happy with the terms of this Treaty," said Frazier. "The Anantonese Steel Consortium, will ensure that nearly 400 million tonnes of steel produced between our two countries, will draw the highest price possible from buyers. There are also generous terms to allow additional nations the opportunity to buy in to the Treaty, and enjoy the benefits of cooperation with two of the largest Steel Producers in Terra."

The final push came as demand for steel internationally began to soften. "We figured now was the time," said Frazier, "Steel and aluminum are both strategically important to the Republic, and I also suppose, Indrala, and as demand begins to slacken, we need to stop focusing on the past and start looking to the future. Cooperation allows both countries to continue to produce, to supply the international demand as it waxes and wanes, while also, more importantly than serving the demands of our customers, protecting our own domestic markets and our own supplies. The Steel War was difficult for the Indralan economy as a whole, and great for the Kalistani economy. These last 10 years have been boom times around Sulari. And now, it is time that we let up on the pressure on Indrala and work out our differences, for everyone's benefit, but most importantly, for Kalistan's and Indrala's benefit."

The new Cartel represents a solidly nationalist tack for the Government of Kalistan, which had not been made explicit in the past. Whether this signals an internal shift in Socialist Party Politics is unknown. It is possible that external factors are responsible for the efforts to ratify the treaty at this point; Perhaps Kalistan, as some liberal economists in the Republic have argued, has maximized the damage it could do through dumping, and was now beginning to realize its own vulnerability. There have also been rumors of deferred maintenance in the infrastructure, which has worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for nearly ten years to keep up with its export commitments, and has not had the opportunity to slow down and ensure that the things needed to maintain such a continuous effort are repaired when they break down.

The FM confirmed this last hypothesis, at least to a degree, while discussing the treaty. "We had a near catastrophe last week at the old Sulari Works, when one of the ladles full of several tons of molten metal became dislodged from the hanger it was moving on, and crashed to the floor below. Luckily, safety protocols were in place and no workers were hurt in the incident, but the mill had to operate at half capacity until the ladle could be removed and replaced, and all that steel lost. If the Republic does not slow its production schedule to some degree, more accidents like this will happen, and in the future we will not be so lucky that we only lose a ladle and 23,000 pounds of molten steel."

The Treaty is expected to easily clear the National Assembly in the coming months, and then the two founding nations will begin building an institutional bureaucracy to begin administering it immediately thereafter.