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FOS Sail Meeting No.2 - Holmvik and East Moreland

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DaveIronside:
The afternoon saw some crowds beginning to leave the dockyard as the family day out had exhausted most of the children. Rhiannon was somewhere now with the Osman Clan enjoying her afternoon, no doubt she'd have some tales to tell David that evening. He had agreed once his talks with Holmvik were over that he, his ex-wife Matilda and Rhiannon and her half-brother Oliver meet and had a dinner together. The King felt it important to show Rhiannon that even if he and her mother where no longer married that they still had Rhiannon's interests at heart. Before then though David had his second big meeting to attend.

"Yes I know who he is" David informed Quinn Germaine his Head of Royal Household as she tried handing him some intelligence documents on the Holmvik President. "You forget I'm a history nerd and I enjoy an action film or two." David had in addition to the briefing papers watched the film that no doubt glamourised the Holmvik revolution and the role their now President Sigmund Haugen had played. The meeting was taking place at the triangular Maritime Registory Building, just another of Portworth's historic buildings near the Dockyard that had been converted. In this case into a series of conference rooms, suites and dining rooms. David had reserved the front points highest tower, a circular room that served as a private bar. Its white marble floor was polished and walls made of dark wood gave an inviting warmth. The Registories bar staff had been replaced with an Air Force Steward who had been ensuring the Holmvik delegation had been kept refreshed while the King made his way over. Keeping them "warmed up" had been Chief Councillor Lucas Blakeslee and his niece Archduchess Sophie. David arrived and approached the President (OOC- Assuming its him if not assume its the leader of the delegation). "Please accept my apologise, days like today have a nasty habit of messing up schedules but I am sure you're no stranger to that." David introduced himself. "Please take a seat, you've all got drinks?" he asked before asking the barmen to fix him an orange juice as he settled down. "Today I'm delighted that we get a chance to talk. Your request to meet is one that excites me. You're nation and ours are very different in the way that we operate but I hope that won't cause any issues between us. Now" David unfolded the letter he'd received from the President and carefully placed it on the table. You must forgive this question. You see I like to think of myself as a bit of a history nerd. I'm fascinated by it and I wonder if it may have some significance, your coat of arms..." he pointed at it, "It appears to have a brick missing. Now is that significant or am I just reading more into it than I should?" he asked leaving the letter between them.

Holmvik:
To many back in Holmvik there had been the expectation that the first real major overseas move by the Republic would be to a fellow Republic, a nation that had shunned the trappings and baubles of monarchy. That though was a path that on Mundus would probably leave you isolated if you followed a policy of ignoring monarchs. Sigmund Haugen had been pondering who should be his first big diplomatic push and then the Festival of Sail invite hit his desk. In the Herayn soft power study they'd been big hitters, their military was well respected and on a more personal level King David seemed someone that Holmvik could do business with. Sigmun had therefore crossed Mundus to meet the King on his festival day. The opening ceremony had been rather pompous but a grand spectacle. He had enjoyed watching it and then the trip to to Registory Building had given him a chance to see a little of Portworth. Sigmund had travelled with his Foreign Minister,Kine Carlsen. She was one of Holmvik's newer breed of politicans. She hadn't been in the capital of Klimpfjäll in 2000, in fact she was just 12 when the revolution had gone down and had been active in the various student political groups that sprang up with the birth of the Republic. The fact she had a lengthy resume of nations she'd visited in her youth had also helped her get into this lofty position at a relatively young age.

Once in the bar the pair enjoyed the view while they waited. They chatted with Blakeslee and the Archduchess. It was a chance to learn a little about their hosts. Kine was keen to learn about Blakeslee's role "Your King has a huge amount of power and yet you are the highest elected official, does this not annoy you just a little?"

Meanwhile Sigmund was more interested in questioning the Archduchess about her sporting background. "Any ambitions for this years Summer Games?" he asked.

When King David arrived Sigmund was willing of course to be respectful. They were in a way in the mans home and so the pair gave a small almost nodded bow to the monarch as he was introduced and then extended a hand. "We've been well taken care of" Sigmund responded once sat back down. It was the manner in which the discussion began that surprised Sigmund and had taken him totally off guard. The President laughed at first and then pointed to the turret on top of the coat of arms. "The turret replaced the crown after our revolution. It was seen fitting as we had defended ourselves and our freedoms. We however realise that our Republic is not perfect, it is incomplete and as such we must always strive to ensure that we work to complete that brick. I think though it will remain ever empty as we strive for perfection and we don't have any perfect nations on Mundus, as much as some leaders may wish us to think so."

Kine took over, "It is our hope that East Moreland could be one step towards helping replace that brick. We need to start making a network of contacts, we intend to re-establish the Network of Republics but before we do we want to send a message that we are not anti-monarchy. You have a large network of friends and so we would like to think that makes our chances of success here more likely. I assume you would have no issues being friends with someone in the Network of Republics?"

DaveIronside:
Lucas Blakeslee spent most of his days herding the Representative Council around to discuss domestic matters and report to the Prime Minister who in return reported to the King. Occasionally though he got to push through ideas of his own and those ended up on the desk of King David and it was then usually the case that the King would invite him to the Palace. He however hadn't really expected to find himself sat with the Foreign Minister of a nation they'd done very little diplomacy with ever in their pasts. He thought about Kine's question before answering. "East Moreland is like a nation thats found a time machine." He paused for a moment. "We cling to religion in a way many parts of Mundus don't and the Cult of Helus teaches us that our monarch is a man trusted by God. Think of it this way if we are having elections and Frejya got a vote I think you'd likely trust her vote rather than a few thousand citizens?" he mused. "We trust our monarch, but the nice thing is we all know we have a mechanism in place that if we get one who ends up a tyrant or is corrupt we can bring about change. So while our culture could be said to be a little old fashioned we've also became a nation thats embraced the 21st Century. Sometimes I feel the King ignores what we want but the fact we've made so much progress as a nation in his reign means that we are willing to trust him. Whether his daughter will get the same trust is yet to be seen. I just pray we don't have to go through what your homeland did." He concluded not sure whether that was an insult or not.

Meanwhile Sophie had things far easier with Sigmund. "Sadly I don't have a qualification time." Sophie wasn't actually that disappointed. "Its not the end of the world though when you compete there it becomes all encompassing and you put everything in your life on the back burner for months, even years at a time. At the moment I'm content to focus on being an Air Force officer and get to meet interesting people like yourself. I'll enjoy the games sat at home watching friends compete on TV, it certainly easier training." She chuckled.

As Sigmund explained the brick idea David had to admire the thought that had gone into it. "I like it" David concluded, "I think traditions and honouring our pasts are something that is an important part of what makes a nation. Its a lofty ambition your aiming for to be perfect and I wish you well with it. Now as for our large network of friends we have friends from all backgrounds, the CNN nations, all monarchies, are naturally our closest but we've a fond friendship with the Alanders which is a Republic, we've Bakkermaya who kind of hover between the two ideas of Republic and Crown and of course our interesting next door neighbours Heyra. If you are able to give CPR to the Network of Republics I take my hat off to you and it certainly won't stop me being your nations friend. Now perhaps we can turn back to this brick." David tapped a finger on the missing spot on the crest on the letter that sat on the table between them. "If you had a magic wand what would make that gap disappear?"

Holmvik:
 Sigmund thought "what would make the gap disappear?" it was a question he hadn't really given much thought of in the discussion or at least not in the way that King David had worded it. "We're a nation that is heavily reliant on the old agricultural, forestry and fishing industries. As the 21st Century begins to progress we need to do likewise. I know we have a spot of what you'd maybe call a "Brain Drain" with younger folk leaving. We've also still got some loyalists of the former royals wandering our nation causing problems from time to time. We need to do something about them. I think the issue is though that no nation will ever be perfect though. Now in terms of us being here and taking steps towards that we'd like to be able to utilise some of the networks you've established to be able to build up our own diplomatic networks. Do you have any ideas that could aide us in that regard?" 

DaveIronside:
"President Haugen East Moreland had a similar problem when I began my reign. We had a huge issue with giving younger people skills for the 21st Century. We invested heavily in cheap but good quality housing for them to get onto the property ladder, we invested in skills education and STEM subjects. We even went as far as building a whole city dedicated to skilling up for the 21st Century. Chamwick has seen similar projects now around the world as purpose built cities designed for 21st Century industry. If I look back at it I kind of think we could have achieved the same result without investing so much money. The networks we established such as the AKO, MICA and CNN have been far more useful than a simple city. What I would propose is that we perhaps look at creating some kind of scholarship exchange between us. Allow your most gifted science and technology students a chance to come and work with some big players in those industries, EMAC, OsmanTech, SmartWar etc might be Morelander businesses but they employ some of the smartest people in the world and they have locations across the world. You want to stop a brain drain why not put in place businesses to stop this drain?"

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