UK Embassy
President and MTIA Loic de Fourgéres follows the Ambassador into the room where they will be meeting and takes the proffered seat.
"I have already met with the Tilapian and US ambassadors. The first because they are our immediate neighbor and the second because of their status as leader of the free world. Some of my discussions with Tilapia have already been rendered obsolete by current events, as we where having preliminary discussions about a tri-lateral conference with St. Esprit regarding armament levels here on the island of Eutopia. As you know, St. Esprit announced that they plan to unilaterally disarm, or more properly speaking, outsource their defense to the French, in exchange for allowing them to have a base there. The US have a base in Western Eutopia. My predecessor campaigned on a promise to close it, but my administration is quite happy to keep it open. Spain, of course, now has a base in Tilapia. Given the trend of Western European powers opening bases in Eutopian nations that speak the same language, I am surprised that the United Kingdom hasn't asked to open a base here as well. Perhaps somewhere just west of Landfall? Maybe we need to have a four, five, or six way discussion about the level of armaments on this island?
Actually, there is a way to render all the concerns moot. The US, Spain, and France are all members of NATO. Tilapia is under implicit Spanish protection, and St. Esprit could soon be under explicit French protection. Protection from whom? Oh, part of it is from the unknown and therefore unnamed potential enemy from overseas, like whatever foreign government aided the local terrorists responsible for the bombing at the Eutopian Central Bank. But although no one has said so, it is clear to any observer that most of the protection is against the land based threat from a Eutopian neighbor, such as the UPE, should some future administration decide to try to undo the secession of one or both other nations by force. It is not really an issue currently, given our lack of an effective air force, and the probable refusal of our troops to obey any orders to fire on Eutopian citizens (a status which our recognition act confers on those born in St. Esprit and Tilapia, much as your country accorded voting rights to anyone born in what is now Ireland) unless we were attacked first.
The United Provinces of Eutopia would like to join NATO. It would diminish the tensions here on this island. Our military, which we would upgrade in quality and readiness, would probably be diminished in size, depending on the needs of our NATO allies to have us participate, proportionally to our population and GDP, in any NATO peace keeping efforts or other deployments. We informed the American ambassador of our wish to join. He said he would discuss it with his government. I would appreciate it if you would do the same, as the more potential countries endorsing our application the better.
While the US was willing to consider our joining NATO, they weren't willing to consider lifting the arms embargo, as they were concerned about some ordinance falling into the wrong hands. While there may have been a theft of some items that a person could carry, I assure you that we can adequately protect our air force's aircraft from theft. This is the aspect of the arms embargo that I am trying to get lifted, as it has been indirectly responsible for the deaths of three of our air force pilots in the past year. We are flying really old planes without access to the spare parts to keep them properly maintained. We will replace those planes. I would rather do so with planes of a type already in use by a NATO member, to make resupply and maintenance during any future joint operation easier. Therefore, we would ask the United Kingdom, either solely, or as part of the European Union, to relax the portion of the arms embargo that applies to military aircraft and spare parts purchases, if only for humanitarian reasons. If the embargo is not relaxed, we will be obliged to go elsewhere to buy less reliable planes for more money, but given our current situation, we would have no choice. I would rather spend the money in the UK or by buying jointly produced European aircraft in which the UK has a share, but if we can't, we will go somewhere else. I would think that your government would prefer us to spend our limited funds in the UK rather than elsewhere.
On another topic, while I understand they are mostly autonomous, the UK does have certain authority with respect to the Turks and Caicos Islands. We are interested in establishing a multi-use facility on one of the islands in that archipelago, although we would consider an alternative in site on one of the southwestern islands of the Bahamas. We would use this as a weather station. You know we were devastated by hurricanes about seven years ago. Satellite photos are nice, but we need to be able to fly weather planes into developing storms to collect more data. Having an airstrip with some supplies and accomodations in that area would greatly facilitate our meteorological research and observations. We would also use the facility as a base for some oceanographic research as well as a secondary base for the boats that provide rescue and medical services to our fishing fleet. We are still in the process of looking for a suitable site, after which we will have to negotiate with the current owners. You don't happen to have a possibly surplus facility in that area do you? Well if you don't, we would still appreciate it if your government would not look askance at our intended development.
I am also a fervent beliver in free trade, but I realize you trade policy is largely determined by the European Union, whom I will meet with next. If we can identify some areas where bilateral tariff reductions between the UPE and EU can arranged, I will let you know so you can encourage their adoption.
I hope you are finding this a pleasant posting, and are taking the opportunity to profit from the various scenic areas here. We would like to promote British tourism here as well. We will be working with the provinces to promote it, but any enthusiastic words you might have for the UK press would be appreciated."
