NationStates Jolt Archive

Najaster, Capital of Kahanistan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Office of Minister of Foreign Affairs Margaret Delray

The Minister sat behind her desk, on the telephone, talking to some official of the Smoke Jaguar government. She was busy attempting to negotiate Nation in Good Standing status with CSJ to enable the purchase of more advanced (though not necessarily sensitive) warships and broker an exchange of ambassadors.

"And if this situation (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=479774) with Automagfreek brews any hotter, we might have a second war on our hands, and we wouldn't be able to formulate any trade agreements. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't tried to intercept the hospital ships yet. We're trying to keep out of a war here, but we can't let millions die and we'll need this weaponry to defend ourselves. Maybe we could come to an arrangement... we get to build naval bases in CSJ and get NGS status, and you can build military bases in Kahanistan?"

Delray waited patiently for the Smoke Jaguar official to reply to her.

Office of the Foreign Relations Directorate
Huntress, Capital of Clan Smoke Jaguar

Vice Foreign Minister Emily Wimmer was just a little overwhelmed in her current situation. With the Foreign Minister out on another major negotiation, along with half his staff, she was stuck with dealing with every little trifle that came along. But to compound this, now the Office of the Khan, essentially the Khan herself, was giving her orders for this one. At least she didn't have to look this nation up. Kahanistan was certainly not an unknown "country of the week," and it was obvious why the Khan felt so strongly about any relationship.
But when she heard the offer from her Khanistani counterpart, her heart skipped a beat. This was exactly what the Khan wanted! Of course, she couldn't exactly state that up front, but while trade agreements were nice, in the end, those were of little consequence with the vast number of other countries already lined up. But military relations, those were few and far between. And any way of quietly extending the nation's global influence seemed to appeal to the Khan.

Considering her words carefully, she responded:
"We understand the situation with the trade agreements, and while we would certainly wish to work on those in the future, we recognize how impending conflicts can sideline such things. However, we may be able to work with your other offer. We are more than open to allowing a military base or two on our territory in exchange for the right to do the same, and depending on how favorable it is to us, it could certainly be sufficient for NGS status. Judging from the urgency of your situation, we should probably try and convince the Khan. Going for the Council would be easier, but could take months, even years, to get the vote in, and I would suspect you really can't afford that kind of wait. I can say from past experience that Khan Kabrinsky would want permanent facilities for all three branches, sufficient for at least 150,000 personnel all told. We could probably get you similar facilities, probably on Lodoss Island outside Edo Bay, but the Khan would want those to be at least a bit smaller since we're also giving the NGS. If that's fine, lets see what we can work out."

"A mid-sized naval base or two would be acceptable on our end," said Delray. She was no military officer, but from watching footage of the CAD conflict, she knew that Kahanistan's weakness in the air was the fact that most of its military bases were concentrated in one area, allowing one missile wave to immobilize the entire air force, leaving the navy and civilian populations easy pickings for hostile bombers.

"We'd want to be able to have a base capable of holding, say, 150 to 250 warships and at least 1,200 aircraft," the Minister of Foreign Affairs continued. "We're open to negotiation regarding the exact sizes of your bases, but we need to have a considerable military power even if our forces at home are defeated. The base should be able to support over 200,000 soldiers, our bases abroad are our insurance policy against a major invasion."