NationStates Jolt Archive

Carl considered the proposal carefully, and conversed silently with his assistant before responding.

"Well, the fishing industry here, especially in Iceland and Norway, is especially large. In fact, the economy of Iceland depends almost solely on fishing, and it is definitely a big part of the Scandinavian economy as a whole. We would be willing to provide you with our excellent fish, that happen to be fished from protected territorial waters, and are of the best quality. We have just recently enacted strict but essential rules that prevent over-fishing and pollution of fishing grounds."

He paused for a moment, deliberating in what way to ask his question.

"What....exactly were you thinking with importing fish? We have rather large quantities of cod and herring, plus tuna. Do you have a specific number (I think it's in lbs or tons of fish) in mind?"

Carl sat back and awaited her response. He was already thinking about how this constant exporting and importing would further develop a possible military and political relationship, and the trading would definitely benefit them both.

(OOC: btw, I just noticed that your GDP per captia figure in the factbook seems to be wrong. I think you forgot to increase your population? ATM $1 trillion GDP averages out to $55,000 per captia :eek: )

Double checking her notes just in case, Chika answered Carl carefully.

"It comes out to 2.4 million tonnes of fresh or frozen fish. Addtionally, 1.5 million tonnes of fish-related products like fish cans each year is needed, as well as 1 million tonnes of feed.

"I believe the total price would be somewhere in the vicinity of $19.5 billion, but we are open to negotiations. We are also interested in exports, if Furturis should ever find herself in need of electroics, machinery, robotics or automobiles."

She leaned back a little.

"That brings us to my other purpose here. By being a source of food for us, Futuris effectively becomes Kiwiland's lifeline. It is of paramount importance to us that we may secure our food, and to that end we wish to enter a mutual-defensive arrangement with your government.

"Specifically, my government hopes to enter into an arrangement that will have us guraunteeing each other support in case of an attack by a third party. Basically, an alliance.

"What does your government think of this proposal?"

Chika now awaited Carl's reply. $20 billion is no small sum. With luck Futuris will decide that they want to buy something from Japan, allowing kiwiland to reciprocrate. Even while she spoke news had arrived that Iberia has cut alll ties with Futuris, leaving Scandanavian oil temporarily without buiyers. With strengthened bilateral ties, this could grown into a stable and firm alliance, she hoped.

OOC: Well, I increased my RL GDP by a bit, which would make my GDP per capita at 55,000ish, which is crazily high, and so I decided to take my GDP per capita off of my RL GDP.

IC:

Carl considered the matter briefly, as he had thought about most of the expected responses.

"Good, good. We will be happy to ship the fish, fishy goods, and feed to a port of your choosing, only if you could specify which. 19.5 billion sounds good, and as the deliveries come in, payments can be either made on delivering, or at the start/end of each year."

"The SSF is also accepting the mutual defensive pact that we have offered each other. The RSFSR has lately been conducting genocide in Chechnya, as you probably already know, and the events their unsettle the peace in the northern regions of Europe and Asia. Details:

If the other nation in the pact is attacked by an invader nation, the nation not being attacked must declare war on the invading nation, and provide whatever military and economic aid that it can.

Peace between each other.

If one of us attacks another nation in the world, military and economic aid is not compulsory but strongly suggested.

If military or economic aid is asked for, it should be delivered, unless their is a crisis occuring in the asked of nation so that it cannot provide aid.

Any rules can be changed/added/removed by us, in the case that situations on the world stage change.


This is what we sort of had in mind, but it is by no means a final deal. Any comments on it would be greatly appreciated."

"And lastly, the SSF would in fact be interested in machinery, especially robotic technology. You may have heard of our venture to create an oil-free economy, as well as several other 'green' plans to do. Maybe our scientists can blend our knowledge of environment-friendly with your knowledge of robotics, and create magnificent results that would promote technology and AI, as well as environment-friendly products, that could lead to a better world for all of us. Also, we would want to test out a few robotics systems used in your car manufacturing shops, since we are about to begin designing a new car that runs on alternative sources of energy."

Carl sat back slowly, pondering over what he had just said. He hadn't meant to be so sudden with 'rules' and 'duties' of the alliance, he was only trying to propose some kind of main line to work on. He had a problem with sounding gruff, he would have to work on that...

(OOC: but.... that gives you a GDP that's more than what your population produces, which doesn't make sense :confused:. You should increase your population or decrease your total GDP, since GDP per captia times population, by definition, equals total GDP.)

Chika blinked a couple of times at how asservative Futuris' minister can be, and the number of topics he touched on in so short a timespan. But then, he also agreed to the offered price without fuss, so with a mental shrug she continued. Nobody's perfect, and she's sure her counterparts around the world have their own unflattering comments about her.

"My government would prefer to make the payment in installments of $1.625 billion at monthly intervals, if that is acceptable. Our ports at Kitakyushu and Nagoya will be ready to unload the cargo.

"As for the defensive alliance, we agree with your proposals with a minor suggestion that requests for aid should be restricted only to specific instances. Moreover, I feel that, in order to foster closer ties, our militaries should hold monthly or otherwise regular meetings to consult with each other. After all the situation will change constantly, and unless we keep in close contact it is far too easy to fall into inconvenient positions.

"Finally, we are also very interested in your government's green projects. The alternative fuel automobile sounds most promising; our firms have long since wanted to develop automobiles running on alternative energies too. Scandanavia is the world leader in green technology, and Japan is a leading manufacturer of automobiles. I am sure there are many exicitng options that would be opened up by a partnerships between us.

"For this, I propose we set up a joint venture, with a 50-50 split of ownership, to develop alternative fuel vehicles - and, perhaps, alternative fuel aircrafts, too.

"In the meantime, if you need to setup automated factories, we'll be happy to provide you with our state-of-the-arts industrial robots. I don't think you'd find them useful for testing purposes, though..."

She finished, and clasped her hands together to wait for the reply. In actual fact she didn't quite understand what the Futuris minister is asking for when he mentioned machinery and robotics, but she hoped her responses had been adequate.

Carl considered her offer for a few moments before answering.

"Good, we'll pay the amount monthly."

"As for the alliance, we think that you proposed an interesting, but good idea. Our militaries are from different parts of the world, and sharing strategies and other military things can improve our military strengths and inspire improvisation when situations arise. As for aid, we assumed that it would only be asked for in times of actual need, not just when someone wanted it."

"I like the idea of the 50-50 ownership, it establishes a bond of equality between the products that we create with sharing technologies. Our green tech is, as you say, very advanced, and we are increasing funding as it is for the alternative energy vehicle. We hope that the different firms and corporations developing these technologies here, and the firms and corporations developing your technologies in your country can collaborate together and come up with amazing things."

"As for the machinery, we would like to purchase 20 Heavy-industrial robots capable of performing multiple heavy-duty tasks. Mainly, the robots will be used for examination and usage in constructing large equipment."

When he had finished, he awaited keenly her response.

OOC: Yeah, WP allowed us to increase our GDP's a little bit, I think. I guess to make it more realistic, I could just increase my population...

(OOC: oh, I'm not saying you shouldn't get a higher GDP, just that producing $1 trillion with only 20 million people is frightening :)
BTW, robots are usually used for mass production, since it takes a lot of money to get them to perform a particular task, so I'm not sure if this is what you'd want)

"This is going very well," Chika remarked brightly. "Let's get the more trivial matter out of the way first. The Kawasaki Heavy Industries is willing to sell their highest end systems at $100,000.

"However, the real costs are in programming the robots to do the tasks demanded of them, normally at $200,000 each time. Kawasaki is willing to cover all installation, maintenance and programming costs over the robots' 4 year life cycles at $1,500,000 each. The grand total then comes to $32 million."

She took out pen and paper, and began writing rapidly whilst talking. "I am glad you agree with our joint venture proposal. Perhaps we can call it, say, the Future-Kiwi Techonologies? Our companies will put together a team immediately to start working on designs for the vehicle, while waiting for Futuris to develop the engine.

"Finally, our alliance," She showed Carl the paper she've been writing. "I have written down most of what we've discussed. Take a look and see if there's anything we'd need to tweak, and we can formalise our treaty."

The piece of paper reads:


Futuris-Kiwiland Alliance

The the spirit of friendship, cooperation and mutual defence the Governemnt of the Scandinavian State of Futuris and the Government of the United Empire of Nippon and Eastern Rossiya agrees to the following:


Article 1. An attack on either Futuris or the United Empire shall be regarded as an attack on both parties
Article 2. If Futuris or the United Empire should initiate hositilities with a third power, military and economic aid from the other party may be requested, and shall be responded to accordinly except in times of special circumstances.
Article 3. As allies Futuris and the United Empire shall consult each other on if and when either believes an armed conflict is eminent
Article 4. Representatives of Futuris and the United Empire shall hold regular meetings on military and strategic matters or if requested, and may alter the treaty through mutual consent

OOC: Sorry about not responding in such a long time...I totally missed this. Yeah, I get how 19 million producing 1 trillion seems impossible.....so, yeah, I'll raise my population to maybe 25 million? Or is 30 million better?
And about robots, I kind of meant 20 robotic systems, so yeah, what you said.

IC:

"Good. I myself don't know much about robotic systems, but that sounds good. 32 million sounds good, and the installations can begin whenever you can (ooc: since they're mainly for economic purposes in general, not really specific to any plans of mine, at least not yet, I won't specify actual cities, locations, etc.)."

"We have officially started work on the engine for this car. Although Futuris is responsible for mainly things involving the energy and Kiwiland involving things with the design, materials, etc. we need to both work together on all aspects, since we may need so-so amount of room for engine, so-so design to minimize drag, etc. while you may want us to use certain materials to make it as light as possible, etc. I'm no specialist on the subject, but collaboration is important. Future-Kiwi Technologies sounds good too."

"As for the alliance, everything seems covered. I assume that we can determine the special circumstances as they go. I think that we both understand that this mainly means if the nation that aid is requested from has something very big going on in their country, for example, natural disaster (hurricane, blizzard, tsunami, etc.) political crisis (civil war, rebellion, high level of protesting) and things like that. Of course, if both nations suddenly decide to attack different third powers, then aid will probably be scarce between us. That is why we need to have our military masterminds converse and collaborate together as to ensure safety and survival of our alliance and two great nations."

"I have been thinking.......if there are no crisis in either country, perhaps a few parts of our Armed Forces can conduct exercises regularly at the meetings that we have, like mock battles, recon missions, etc. which will provide experience for the fresh recruits? As for the meetings themselves between our militaries, I say that we switch off between Kiwiland and Futuris everytime, maybe once a month (RP time). The actual leaders of the military of both countries could be constantly in contact to ensure that we are both involved and knowledgeable of unfolding worldwide occurences."

"Besides that......it sounds really good. What do you think of the exercises?"

(OOC: I'd go with 25 million? Seems more in line with Scandanavia's RL GDP per capita)

IC:

"I agree wholeheartedly. Indeed, regular military exercises will increase the readiness of our armed forces and develop closer ties and communications. In fact our Siberian hinterlands would be ideal for large scale mock battles, and if you would like we can hold one when it is time for our first meeting in Kiwiland.

"Considering the car; your points are absolutely right. To facilitate this collaboration, I think, Future-Kiwi Techonologies should establish a global headquarters somewhere. This will be where technicians, designers, scientists and company representatives from both our countries may meet to work together, and coordinate the separate design teams located elsewhere. Much like how Sony Ericsson works, another example of a great and successful joint venture between technological leaders of our two nations.

"Now if all else is in agreement, I believe I have fullfilled my mission. Shall we sign the alliance?"

"Very well. If I can take a moment, I'll fax the paper and send it to the Leader, Bjorn Gustavsson. It has my acceptance, which counts for a lot, but he has the final say. I'm sure he'll agree, as I've talked about a possibility of an alliance with him before. It'll take just a few minutes..."

A few minutes later....

"Ah, good. He has signed. Then we have an official alliance?"

"As for FK Tech, Global Headquarters sounds nice. We've officially begun the design of the XM-1 Engine for the automobile, and we're pouring quite a bit of our budget into it. It should be done in about 4-6 years, maybe even less. For the Global HQ, where were you thinking of?"

"Very well. If I can take a moment, I'll fax the paper and send it to the Leader, Bjorn Gustavsson. It has my acceptance, which counts for a lot, but he has the final say. I'm sure he'll agree, as I've talked about a possibility of an alliance with him before. It'll take just a few minutes..."

A few minutes later....

"Ah, good. He has signed. Then we have an official alliance?"

"As for FK Tech, Global Headquarters sounds nice. We've officially begun the design of the XM-1 Engine for the automobile, and we're pouring quite a bit of our budget into it. It should be done in about 4-6 years, maybe even less. For the Global HQ, where were you thinking of?"

"Yes, let's have a toast to celebrate our new alliance," She turned around and pulled a bottle of wine out of thin air, pouring herself and Carl a cup each. A few drinks later an aide quietly reminded her to talk about business.

"Our legislature is considering a new budget right now, and we expect to have funding allocated for FK Tech. That means we'll soon be getting design works on the car itself started, and I've been assured that conceptual artwork and preliminary designes will be finished wihtin the year.

"As for the HQ... Hmm, Kiwiland is on friendly terms with the German Confederation, another technological leader. Would Berlin be acceptable? On the other hand, London is a global trade centre, and it could very well benefit us to be located there. What do you think? We don't particulaly mind, really, unless its in a hostile nation."

"This is good wine.....ahem, on another note, we don't particurarly care where the Global HQ is either, as long as it's not within a hostile nation. Right now, that would include the CCPS and the MEC. The RSFSR right now is also experiencing domestic turmoil and civil war, which could be potentially dangerous for the HQ. Berlin and London both sound good, and I'm sure that they would both accept having us there."

"On the notice of the car, very good. We've invested about 10% of our budget in the SSF on promoting green technology and a 'green lifestyle' and one of our plans, which is due to finish in around 8 years, is to be completely independent of oil, natural gas, and coal. The XM-1 Engine, along with your state-of-the-art car designs will help in that venture greatly."

"Now, as for actual specifications to the car designs and the engine designs, our scientists have requested a few details in your car design. Mainly, that it be rather light-weight, to allow as much miles per "gallon" of alternative energy as possible. The design being sleek and efficient to minimize air friction, as well as maximize car safety is all we're looking for....all of those things you are famous for. Although it is rather early to be looking into those things, as we still have a few years to go, maybe those requests to make an efficent alternative energy automobile could be though upon. I hope we're not asking for too much..."

"This is good wine.....ahem, on another note, we don't particurarly care where the Global HQ is either, as long as it's not within a hostile nation. Right now, that would include the CCPS and the MEC. The RSFSR right now is also experiencing domestic turmoil and civil war, which could be potentially dangerous for the HQ. Berlin and London both sound good, and I'm sure that they would both accept having us there."

"On the notice of the car, very good. We've invested about 10% of our budget in the SSF on promoting green technology and a 'green lifestyle' and one of our plans, which is due to finish in around 8 years, is to be completely independent of oil, natural gas, and coal. The XM-1 Engine, along with your state-of-the-art car designs will help in that venture greatly."

"Now, as for actual specifications to the car designs and the engine designs, our scientists have requested a few details in your car design. Mainly, that it be rather light-weight, to allow as much miles per "gallon" of alternative energy as possible. The design being sleek and efficient to minimize air friction, as well as maximize car safety is all we're looking for....all of those things you are famous for. Although it is rather early to be looking into those things, as we still have a few years to go, maybe those requests to make an efficent alternative energy automobile could be though upon. I hope we're not asking for too much..."


"Yes, all of these can be arranged. Of course, as automobiles are really built around engines, our designs will be dependent on your scientists' parameters. As for the HQ, if you don't mind then, should we establish it in Berlin?

"Anyhow, I am glad were able to resolve so many issues. If there is no other points to discuss, I think I should stop taking up your time. Of course, as soon as the design works are in I'll come show them to you.

"Berlin sounds good. As the XM-1 Engine progresses, and your car designs begin to take effect, I'm sure we can arrange for meetings to collaborate our efforts."

"Well, it has been a pleasure, Ms. Chika..."