Kalistan

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Her Imperial Majesty's Trade Minister travels to Baltusia
Trade offer includes assistance in setting up electric vehicle infrastructure and small arms
Lucid City, Duchy of Suldanor
June 15, 5652


Her Imperial Majesty's Minister for Trade Melanie Boone, on her first major mission to Baltusia

Her Imperial Majesty's Minister for Trade and Industry, Melanie Boone left Lucid Station today to travel into Baltusia to meet with the Baltusian Government to discuss development cooperation. Kalistan has offered to assist Baltusia in building an electric infrastructure for the eventual sale of MoCo electric vehicles in Baltusia. "Baltusia informally approached Her Imperial Majesty's Government about the sale of MoCo Automobiles in Baltusia," said Minister Boone. "Of course we are interested, but during the pre-talks we discovered that Baltusia is lacking in the infrastructure to adequately charge the vehicles. They still operate on fossil fuels, which are somewhat abundant for Baltusia in the Northern Anantonese Formation, but MoCo vehicles are electric only, so to sell MoCos in Baltusia, they would need charging stations in their larger cities and at regular intervals on their main roads."

Boone said Kalistan was willing to help in this effort. "Assisting Baltusia in this way will bring dividends for both countries," said Boone. "Kali MoCo sells more cars, Sulari Photovoltaics gets a contract to install its multistation generators, KalMD sells batteries, and Baltusia gets inexpensive infrastructure that can also add sustainable energy creation to their power grid, while helping to cut down their dependence on pollution causing petrochemicals."

The development assistance is being provided by the Kalistani Government to Baltusia exclusively. "Her Imperial Majesty has authorized Miramar to purchase enough materials to set up enough electric automobile infrastrucutre, including about 15 charging stations in a dozen major cities and towns, as well as charging stations every hundred and fifty miles along selected corridors between the Capital and the Port of San Luis, and to provide the assistance free of charge to the government of Baltusia. Miramar will recoup part of its investment from MoCo when they begin selling cars in Baltusia, but also from stock purchases in KalMD and Sulari PV, which have been reserved for Miramar. Miramar will divest once it has hit its ROI of about 3% over investment. Baltusia will itself pick up any ongoing costs for the infrastructure after installation.

"The overarching good is to help Baltusia both jumpstart modernization of its electrical supply system, and to help ween them off of fossil fuels. Eventually oil will run out in their part of the formation, and imports will become more expensive, while environmental degradation, something Her Imperial Majesty is very concerned about, worsens everyday. Kalistan is not only making an investment to improve our own nation's economic future, but we are making an investment in Baltusia, to help it do its part to reducing climate destruction and make that nation as pretty and livable for its citizens as Kalistan is."

In addition to the Infrastructure deal, Minister Boone has said that a fairly major arms deal is in the works. "We understand that Baltusia seeks small arms, and Kalistan has a lot of small arms in surplus. The Defense Ministry and KalMilInCo said they are prepared to provide Baltusia more than 35,000 combat rifles without any charge. These rifles are in surplus, the result of backlogged orders from the Kundrati War, and cost a lot for Kalistan to maintain in some military warehouse in Suldanor, when they could just as easily be transferred off the books and that money can be saved to our National Budget." The rifles, the 7.62mm Standard Kadashev All Weather Service Rifle is the standard issue for both Kalistani Regular and Militia forces, and has been for centuries. They are easy and inexpensive to produce and are designed to fire under most conditions. They are one of the most common small arms on the planet, and used by dozens of militaries. As such, parts and ammunition for them is also easily available.

"This materiel is purely surplus, and has been maintained in mint condition for years," said Boone. "Kalistan doesn't need it, and for purely instrumental reasons, we want to make sure that it is Kalistani hardware that Baltusian security forces receive, rather than some other nation's." Boone said KalMilInCo is interested in supplying additional surplus to Baltusia, "...especially if it means keeping certain foregin nation's from gaining an unearned foot hold in northern Seleya."

Before proceeding the Baltusian capital of Johnston, Boone says she intends to travel by train and make a stop in San Luis to talk with real estate brokers about the purchase of some land on the shore near the city. "I think Her Imperial Majesty is interested in potentially buying a vacation home in the province. She is sending me to see if there is some coastal acreage that meets her needs."

@TheRepublic