Aftenposten Internasjonal - The Evening Post International

[Odinson]

THE EVENING POST
INTERNATIONAL​

 

[Odinson]

February 1996​

EGYPT'S GROWING STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE
How the third most populous country in Africa is earning the world's respect.

The outer-skyline of Egypt's capital, Cairo, with the ancient Great Pyramids of Giza in the background.

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The ancient powerhouse of Egypt is reclaiming itself as a mighty player not only on the continent of Africa, but also in the entire Mediterranean region. Mando Safar, a 47 year-old native of the city of Alexandria, has been President of The Republic of Egypt since 1994. His philosophy of infrastructure development, including the importance of the Suez Canal, has helped shape Egypt both economically and politically in the last two years. Compared to the past fifty years, the country has recently seen overwhelming stability since President Safar took office. This has been attributed to the President's socially-moderate, anti-terrorist, and pro-growth administration that is focusing on improving the country's base. Impressive examples so far include a modernization and exceptional expansion of Cairo's International Airport to encourage foreign tourism and a revamp of Alexandria's seaport to accommodate even larger commercial ships. While this journalist can only speculate on whether or not it was intentional, it's an undeniable fact that the combined effects of a stronger economy and better infrastructure have led to less corruption in the Egyptian government.

Time and time again around the world, the effects of less corruption have systemic societal benefits for virtually everyone in a country. The overwhelming one, though, is that massive swaths of the budget - liquid cash - are not lost to corrupt politicians and generals. While a portion of this money has been going to further improve Egypt and serve as a catalyst for this economic positive feedback loop, it's quite undeniable that the Egyptian armed forces have received a sizable amount. The personnel of the military alone is several hundreds-of-thousands of soldiers, sailors, pilots, and marines who man surprisingly quality military equipment.

While exact information on all of Egypt's military equipment is sparse, perhaps the most impressive aspect is the country's Navy. A sea and ocean away is the United States which has the most powerful surface fleet in human history. The Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer is the backbone of the modern American Navy. Its long-range precision strike capabilities, combined with the large number of missiles it can carry at once, mean that just one of these modern warships poses a significant threat to many of the world's navies. Egypt's answer to the Arleigh Burke appears to be a vastly different strategy which the Chinese recently replicated: a massive quantity of small, maneuverable, surface-vessels which almost certainly have anti-ship capabilities. In essence, the Egyptian strategy appears to be overwhelming quantity, like a pack of wolves taking down a 700-pound elk. While this doesn't give Egypt the ability to project power outside of the Red Sea and Mediterranean (which is still impressive) it certainly would make a conventional American or British intervention in, or even near, Egypt a painful prospect, if not an impossible one.

A recent power-move by the Egyptians has been the effective nationalization of the Suez Canal. Seeing a direct economic bonus from the canal is right from President Safar's long-term goals for Egypt. The government purchased 51% of the Suez Canal Authority, giving the state a controlling interest. Fees have been established for commercial ships, military vessels, and even humanitarian missions. The fees to cross the canal are real, but not excessive. The aforementioned American Arleigh Burke Destroyer, for example, would have to pay $331,840 for a one-way crossing of the canal.

Aftenposten Internasjonal has not been able to independently confirm exactly how the Egyptian Republic is fairing in international relations of other countries, but clear steps have been taken with at least Norway. The Ministry of Finance reported that Egypt was the first country in the world to purchase the ministry's "Royal Treasury Bonds"; $6-billion worth. On the other hand, the Egyptian government is currently in an international legal dispute with the Swedish legal firm, Storhet Group, over payment for stock purchases. In the short-term this may make a relationship with the soon-to-be Nordic Council slightly more difficult to garner, but the same can't been said for Norway which has noticeably remained quiet on the matter.

The Republic of Egypt, under the leadership of President Safar, has managed to become a shining beacon for the Arab world. It's powerful armed forces, growing economic strength, and promising geopolitical status indicates a bright future for the ancient state.

 

[Odinson]

December 1996​

THE BAFFLING STORY OF THE BNS LEOPOLD
How one Japanese warship bankrupt Belgium, made Sweden the richest country on Earth,
was seized by communist pirates, and nearly started a world war.

The Swedish HSwMS Ystad (lated renamed BNS Leopold) sailing off the southern coast of Norway.

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The story of the Leopold begins in the early 1990s when the Swedish Ministry of Defense contacted the state-owned Japanese Pacific Defense Export Company. The Swedes needed an amphibious assault ship that was capable of transporting troops and vehicles, and the Japanese were eager to sell their domestic products to other nations. The production of the warship began in Japanese dockyards after the Swedish government issued a payment of $600-million for the ship, $500-million of which was used by the Japanese to construct it. It was finished on time and without incident. The vessel was sent to Sweden where it entered into the service of the Royal Swedish Navy. It was given the prefix and name "HSwMS Ystad" after the 1000 year-old town of Ystad in southern Sweden.

The Ystad never saw combat or deployment while sailing under the Swedish flag. Instead, in early 1996, the Swedish Defense Material Administration - a government agency that is responsible for acquiring assets for the Department of Defense - sent a secure message to the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. The Minister's secretary did not securely forward the message to the Dutch Defense Material Organization, which is how we managed to find it. The following is the message written by Göran Mårtensson, the General Director of the Defense Material Administration.

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"The Kingdom of Sweden has for some time been the operator of the Ōsumi-Class Amphibious Transport Dock which has served us well over the years. However as the Swedish Royal Navy has progressed substantially since the purchase and the inability for us to easily purchase, develop and continue service of this class of vessel, it has become somewhat cumbersome; preventing us from developing further. As such we intend to decommission the HSwMS Ystad in the coming months and instead replace it with a much more advanced piece of equipment which can fill the void in our navy. I am hoping that the Kingdom of the Netherlands will be able to do so with the Rotterdam-Class Landing Platform Dock.

We intend to purchase two to three of these vessels dependant (sic) on the price-points available.

Naturally conversation surrounding the purchase of military equipment requires some degree of negotiation and I would be happy to accept an encrypted telephone call from your respective department in order to discuss this purchase or perhaps a more suitable alternative."

-Göran Mårtensson, the General Director of the Defense Material Administration

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The Swedes were dumping the Ystad and looking for a presumably larger and more strategic amphibious assault ship, which the Dutch produce. The salient point in Director Mårtensson's message was that the Swedes were now preparing to decommission the Ystad. Shortly thereafter, the Swedish government put the ship up for an international public auction.

Meanwhile, over 1200 kilometers from Stockholm, Brussels was in an uproar. Communists had recently overthrown the democratically-elected government and imprisoned the Royal Family with the help of some of the military. At the same time, Norway and Sweden were conducting a significant show of force off of the coast of Belgium by sailing a fleet of Norwegian and Swedish warships through Belgian territorial waters. Simply put, this was not a stable period in Belgian history.

The radicals that had taken control of most of the Belgian government noticed when the Swedes began an international public auction for the Ystad, which was to start at $250-million. The Belgian communists issued the first and only bid: $10-billion. The Swedes promptly closed the auction and accepted payment from the Belgians, just after the Swedish Navy had sailed two frigates through Belgian territorial waters without permission. It is unclear why the Belgians went through with this exceptionally inflated bid to the Swedes. Conspiracy theorists say that Swedish Intelligence had infiltrated the Belgian communists and convinced them to issue the payment, while political science Professor Bjorn Johnson from Oslo University says, "Those radicals simply didn't understand finance, or how to run a government."

Nevertheless, the payment went through. This made the Swedish government, which was rumored to have recently spent about $10-billion on their naval and air forces, the richest nation in the world once again. Belgium, however, was brought onto the cusp of financial ruin. The ridiculous purchase of the Ystad, which was now styled the BNS Leopold, was the last straw for the Belgian people, as well as the military who managed a mostly-peaceful restoration of their constitutional monarchy and democratic government. This, however, is not the end of the story for the communists who were just now finding their sea-legs.

About a month after the BNS Leopold entered into service with Belgium's Navy, Belgian communists boarded the ship with some possible assistance from the crew. According to Belgium's government, they set sail without authorization of the government. The communist pirates were on a mission: to infiltrate Portugal with several hundred gorilla troops and aid the communist movement in Portugal. These plans, however, would never materialize. The Leopold refueled and restocked at a French port, without gaining permission to enter French territorial waters. Instead of flying the Belgian flag, it was flying communist flags and reportedly adorned with some minor "red" insignia which was very uncharacteristic for Western Europe. Instead of intervening, the French government contacted the British, Spanish, and Portuguese governments and informed them that it was sailing toward their direction.

The Leopold continued its journey to Portugal, and eventually entered Portuguese territorial waters. Little did they know, however, that an armed flotilla of Portuguese and Brazilian warships was waiting for them. Once the vessel entered the territorial waters, the flotilla surrounded the vessel and demanded its surrender. The communist pirates did so, without firing a single shot. They were all taken into custody, and the Leopold was seized by the Portuguese Navy. After facing justice in Portugal, most of the sailors were sent back to Belgium to serve the rest of their jail time. The Portuguese government offered to enter into negotiations to return the warship to Belgium, however there is no public record of such discussions ever taking place. In fact, as far as Aftenposten International can tell, the Leopold is likely rusting in some port in Portugal.

Blue: Countries that the Leopold has legally visited. Red: Countries that the Leopold has illegally visited.​

Former members of the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, who chose to remain anonymous, told Aftenposten International just how close Scandinavia was to being at war with Belgium. "At one point, when the communists were in power, the government was prepared to have the military invade Belgium and restore the democratic government. The Belgians' saving-grace was the Dutch tendency to avoid physical conflict at all cost. Had the Belgian communists started a war between Belgium, Portugal, and Brazil, it's entirely possible that Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, and even the United States and Russia would have eventually joined into the conflict... So yeah, I'm happy they had no idea what they were doing," said one former official.

At the time of the writing of this article, the Leopold has changed hands four times: from Japan to Sweden, Sweden to Belgium, Belgium to de facto pirates, and finally the communist pirates to the Portuguese government. Also, in total, the Leopold cost the governments of the world an estimated $13-billion; costs included its construction, initial purchase, life-time maintenance, pay to crewmen, the Belgian purchase, and the estimated costs of the Brazilian and Portuguese naval deployments to seize it. The ripples of the Leopold's journey from Asia, to Scandinavia, to the Lowlands, to Iberia are still visible today.

Sweden remains the wealthiest country in the world with over $31-billion in its treasury and possibly tens-of-billions more in stocks. Northern Europe continues to have frosty relations with Belgium - Sweden, but especially Norway, are said to still see the country as generally unreliable and unstable. The incident also helped build a strong working relationship between Portugal and Brazil who are today both part of an alliance called "The Lusophonic Organization of Free States". Belgium's government has only recently begun to fix the damage done to its reputation by coups, civil unrest, poor fiscal decisions, and pirates.