Sakura, still outside glanced at her watch, it was almost time but then came a roar she knew well,
don't even have to look she thought, Mundus's biggest petrol head was arriving in one of her
super cars.
"I was starting to wonder what was keeping you." Sakura said as her cousin the Crown Princess of Achkaerin
Serenity Azurewind got out of the car and made her way up the steps to the entrance.
"Caught a little traffic near the airport." Serenity said, she hugged her cousin "Sorry."
"Don't be, well out of your control." Sakura said "I'm going to kick things off then I'm handing you the floor. If we're going to reform the CTO then we should first hear the problems and as Achkaerin just voted to leave you're best positioned to state them."
"Fair enough." Serenity said
A few minutes later the various delegations took their seats at the table, Sakura looked around the table.
"I thank everyone for coming to this summit and I thank Rokkenjima for hosting this summit. It is a summit that should not have been needed as the opportunity for reform of this organisation was addressed in Silverhills East Moreland not that long ago, however the lack of a substantive consensus in that summit led to the continuation of niggling issues within the organisation and ultimately recent events that have seen the Achkaerinese decision to leave the organisation. My intention today is to address the issues that face this organisation of which the treaty is only a small part and is easily addressed not by going through the treaty section by section but by reviewing the East Moreland proposal from Silverhills, a proposal that was a streamlining of the organisation and allowed it to stand stronger with its principles." Sakura said
"Following the conclusion of this summit, I will submit any redesigned treaty and other points as a resolution to the General Assembly for the procedural process.
[1] Finally I will restate for the record the situation with regards to Achkaerinese citizens who presently hold office within the CTO, the organisation will not require the resignations of those Achkaerinese citizens who hold office with the Secretariat team or those who hold office within subsidiary organisations. Now with that said I hand the floor to Crown Princess Serenity since if we are to address CTO reform we should first know what the issues are."
With Sakura having said her piece Serenity took a few deep breaths, she opened the shoulder bag she'd placed next to her chair and took something out of it.
"First allow me to observe formality." Serenity said she slid the item, a sealed letter to the Secretary General, in front of Sakura it was in short the formal resignation of Achkaerin from the CTO effective from the end of Sakura's tenure as Secretary General "The CTO has five major problems which fueled the Leave Campaign in Achkaerin resulting in the decision to leave, some of these are known others may not be."
"The first problem is commitment." she continued then she did something unexpected she took from the bag a book with the Achkaerin seal on the front and placed it on the table with a heavy thud "This contains the details of seven hundred Achkaerinese military personnel lost on CTO operations." she wasn't finished she took another book, a heavier one, this one with the Morelander seal on it, on the table "Approximately eight hundred Morelander military personnel lost on CTO operations. That's a total of around one thousand five hundred troops from these two nations lost.
Let me be clear, I sat in the Commonwealth Conference with the present Secretary General as representatives of Achkaerin and we agreed with an understanding that in the early days the burden of providing the military force of the Commonwealth would likely fall on the nations that at the time made up the Cross Straits Treaty Organisation and the Confederation of Independent States. In Marseilles this was the case as we saw the four major CIS powers in Achkaerin, Dijel, East Moreland and Seaforth play major roles alongside South Hills, Nueva Ardia and Nya Aland. However there was a clear lack of commitment from Rokkenjima in this operation an operation that Grand Marshall Cole had command of - we were promised thirty thousand Rokkenjiman troops and extensive naval and air support none of which materialized and as a result the amphibious assault part of the operation that was being spearheaded by Achkaerin was put in jeopardy.
Then let's fast forward to Uppsala, starting with the initial disaster we only saw Achkaerinese and East Moreland forces deployed as the situation has evolved we've seen additional nations commit support only one of which is a CTO member - Himeyama, the others are not CTO members and in a crisis that should have been simple for the CTO to show it's commitment to its principles this is nothing short of humiliating. And then we have Mercia, this organisation didn't even debate the situation and it's refusal to do so forced unilateral action by Achkaerin and East Moreland this time with later support from Ui Cenneslaig a non CTO nation. An action that saved lives.
The lack of involvement in these operations by the vast majority of the CTO membership shows a clear lack of commitment on their part to roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty, and if anyone here thinks their nation has a good excuse then I know one thousand five hundred family's who would like to hear it and no..." her eyes flicked towards Evanthe "The shadow of the Andean Genocide is not a good excuse remember Achkaerin is the sole nation condemned by this organisation and that didn't stop Achkaerin from doing its bit. So your first challenge is ensuring that when the CTO is forced to take such action that it is an action where the burden is fairly shared.
The second problem with the CTO is it takes too long to make decisions, the process is reliant on the engagement of nations in debate and where there is none the will of the Secretary General to keep the business progressing and to put matters to vote in a timely manner. This bureaucracy is something easily addressed if one is prepared to reassess the format of the organisation, the Silverhills proposal made by King David was and remains a streamlined version of the Commonwealth Treaty however before you decide to review that I would suggest you ask a different question 'does the present operational model of the CTO work?' rather than try to salvage a format that at times feels like you're flogging a dead horse wouldn't you be better off first discussing is there another model that might work? And if I may be so bold I need only look toward my cousin to suggest that there may be an answer there.
Third in a related way is the perceptual image that the CTO presents, it gives off an image that it is an Organisation dominated by the major powers on Mundus and historically there's every reason to believe that given that Achkaerin, East Moreland and Rokkenjima account for the vast majority of CTO resolutions and of the seven people to have held the position of Secretary General there have been two Achkaerinese, two Rokkenjiman's, one Morelander, one Nord and one Tytorian, so five out of seven have been from major powers. So there is a need to consider how other nations may be encouraged to participate more within the CTO, however bear in mind that the lack of activity in debate is not the fault of those that choose to debate issues it is for those who have so far declined to participate in debates to answer.
Fourth there is no regional collaboration the Palace of Nations serves as the home of the CTO yet there is no link to the regions of Mundus as the CTO rides roughshod over all, this needs to change look at the approach of the CMA in debating the Academicia crisis, they didn't debate independent action they asked the Alba Karinya Organisation whether they had the situation under control, the CTO could learn a lot from that. It is surely a matter of urgency for the CTO to adopt an ambassadorial program similar to the Prefect program being trialed by Achkaerin or the set up of Ui Cenneslaig whereby you have ambassadors assigned to continents except rather than it being continents in this case it would be to organisations.
Finally the CTO has an international court of justice which is frankly an absolute joke because it does nothing and has no real jurisdiction, what cases does anyone expect this court to arbitrate over? Uppsala Convention? No because there's already the Convention Court. MCUR? Fair Seas Concordat? No because not every CTO member is a signatory of those treaty's and it sends very mixed messages. It's a useless Court and tied in with this there is an unwillingness on the CTO to challenge nations when they act contrary to international law CTO member or not. When the Iwi committed a blatant violation of the Fair Seas Concordat as a signatory nation, did the CTO do anything? Surely it's not too much to ask for an expression of dissatisfaction. If this organisation is going to stand for peace, justice and everything else it claims to stand for then it must start acting like it uniformly.
Now Achkaerin does not wish to take any action against other members of this organisation, despite our legal right to do so, but I would remind each and every one of you gathered here of Article forty seven
The Members of the Commonwealth Treaty Organisation shall join in affording mutual assistance in carrying out the measures decided upon by the Security Council. This Article requires each member nation to commit to supporting CTO actions when decided upon, can you honestly say that you have done so? Achkaerin can, East Moreland can, Himeyama can. Can anyone else? We are well past the short term scenario that was implied at the Commonwealth Conference, the refusal to commit on the part of the CTO has already cost this organisation one of it's major contributors, do not let it cost you another it is publicly known that King David is going to review East Moreland's membership based on the outcome of this summit you may be able to survive one of your major contributors leaving but do you believe that this organisation could remain committed and ready to show its commitment to its principles if the other major contributor left?"
Serenity glanced at the two books for a second and then back at the people around the table
"Take the chance and reform now, remember the foundation of this organisation and live up to it, do not let these one thousand five hundred people's sacrifices mean nothing, make them mean something, make them count not only for the lives they have saved but the lives that they will save if you spread the burden more than you presently have. Achkaerin will still be there, as we've assured everyone leaving the CTO does not mean that we won't act if we see another Mercia type situation, we simply cannot countenance asking our brave men and women to make the ultimate sacrifice for an organisation that refuses to live up to its principles. This is your last chance I urge you to take it. Thank you."
Serenity relaxed in her chair and Sakura looked around the table.
"I believe then we have heard the issues, many of which we recognize, the floor is now open but I remind everyone present that this is about reform of the CTO and not debating what's become known as Achxit." Sakura said "Primarily we have two issues the organisational structure and the organisational commitment. I suggest we focus our energies there but as has been suggested before we consider any potential treaty amendments I am minded to suggest we take an open minded approach as has been suggested and ask whether the current format of the organisation actually works the way it is supposed to work."
