KOS | Call to Hakim Usta

[Jace]

Introducing himself as Vincent Wei, a call would be made to the office of Hakim Usta from the encrypted line installed in Vincent's personal office.


@Retroliser

 

[Retroliser]

@Jace
Hakim, after ensuring his side of the phone line was encrypted, answered the call.

"Hello, this is Hakim Usta, how may I help you?" He greeted.

 

[Jace]

"Thank you for taking my call., Mr. Usta. This is Vincent Wei, King of Singapore, and I believe you're the correct individual to speak to. Permitting the time, I would like to have a conversation with you regarding my own personal interest in the organization known as the Iron Ring. I've taken the time to understand it's principles on my own, and I believe there's potential for mutual benefit if I brought my nation into the organization as well."

@Retroliser

 

[Retroliser]

@Jace
"I have all the time you require, Your Majesty," Hakim explained, while taking a seat. "If you understand the principles of The Iron Ring, and its purpose, then how may I be of assistance?"

 

[Jace]

"Well Mr. Usta, I was hoping to acquire your assistance in putting forth the notion of Singapore joining the Iron Ring. Unfortunately the policy of joining the pact itself wasn't explained well, so I decided to reach out to someone who might be able to assist me with this directly."

@Retroliser

 

[Retroliser]

"The process for joining, at this present time, is to simply ask one of the members. Under Article 6, unanimous consent is required to join, if you weren't one of the original signatories. Since members of The Iron Ring are required to have a delegation here in Munich, it should not take very long, since there is only Turkey and Germany at the moment, to ascertain whether they are willing to give their consent. If you can spare me a moment, I can ask their delegate right now, if that would be satisfactory for you?"
@Jace

 

[Jace]

"Yes, that is more than satisfactory Mr. Usta. Sometimes it's just best to get information directly from the source, I believe, and I much appreciate your assistance in this matter. I'll wait as long as it takes."

@Retroliser

 

[Retroliser]

@NagandEmerald
@Jace
Hakim put The King on hold and then ventured to Karl Diercke's office in The Munich Residenz. Upon arriving, he knocked on the door.

"Excuse me, Herr Diercke," He said. "I have a very important person on the phone wishing to gain membership to The Iron Ring, could I have you attention in my office for a moment?"

 

[NagandEmerald]

@Retroliser

As soon as Hakim had knocked on the door, Karl was already thinking that it had something to do specifically with the Iron Ring: a potential nation? Now he was curious...

"I'll open an encrypted line on the same call, if I may, and I will alert the German government to the situation," he replied, already tapping his finger on the table in a 4-time pattern in anticipation.

 

[Retroliser]

@Jace
@NagandEmerald
"Excellent!" Hakim replied, before heading back to his office. Once he had returned, he patched Diercke into the call on another secure line, and took The King off hold.

"Apologies for the wait, Your Majesty," The Turk apologised. "I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Karl Diercke, the German delegate for The Iron Ring."

 

[NagandEmerald]

@Jace
@Retroliser

"Your Majesty?" Karl questioned, already now curious, "If it is not rude to ask, which country do you rule over?" There were only a limited amount of monarchies in the world, and perhaps gaining insight to whichever country this monarch ruled over would give Diercke a better understanding of why they would potentially wish to join.

 

[Jace]

A feint smile would appear behind the phone after the German delegate was added onto the call. "It's not rude at all, Mr. Diercke. I'm the first King of Singapore, as well as the CEO of Lion Defense Industries. Considering the affairs of the far east, our own diplomatic ventures into Europe have been rather limited."

@Retroliser @NagandEmerald

 

[NagandEmerald]

@Retroliser

Karl thought for a moment before turning on a dime and questioning Hakim, tapping his chin four times as he did.

"What do you think Hakim? Is there anything that could be said about the Singaporean government that might conflict with our ideals?" he asked.

 

[Retroliser]

@Jace @NagandEmerald
"At the present time, we have no obligatory rules that they can't follow, Mr. Diercke," Hakim mused. "As such, I see no reason why they shouldn't be permitted to dispatch a delegation to Munich and be a partner in this initiative. As far as I'm aware, Singapore is very similar to Turkey. Monarchy with a great deal of power invested in the sovereign and mandatory conscription. Therefore, I am more than happy to welcome Singapore to The Iron Ring."

 

[Jace]

"We've actually enacted reforms to our military recently, with several more to follow. Our Conscription Act was a relic of the previous republic, and as of two days ago has been abolished as a policy. The Royal Armed Forces will consist solely of volunteer soldiers." Vincent would briefly interject, as the news was still rather fresh to many Singaporeans let alone foreign dignitaries.

@Retroliser @NagandEmerald

 

[NagandEmerald]

@Jace @Retroliser

"What your country has done regarding its military is not necessarily any of the Iron Ring's concern. I am more interested on how you view your people, how you treat them, and whether you are an advocate of independence and the sovereignty of nations," Karl bluntly stated.

 

[Jace]

"Singapore is a kingdom of over five million, Mr. Diercke, who's home is surrounded by potential threats from multiple sides of our country. We're a multi-ethnic society that's developed a unified shared trait of our fiercely strong independence in a region that's slowly turning away from the ideals that we hold. I view my people as just that, Mr. Diercke. They are my brothers and sisters, and many of them are the same sons and fathers who helped to hold the shattered state together before we returned things to order. My title of King would mean nothing if my administration does wrong by the same people who've entrusted the Wei family with guiding them in an age of uncertainty. That aside, I advocate for nations to be able to control their own destiny, within the means of respecting other nations. Personally I believe doing what's pertinent to protect your own interests is paramount, especially when living among a sea of sharks." Vincent responded.

@NagandEmerald @Retroliser

 

[Retroliser]

@Jace @NagandEmerald
"His Majesty has a point," Hakim concurred. "If I recall correctly, many of Singapore's neighbours are communist regimes. India, China, Vietnam and Japan are all powerful nations in the region, and all of them are communist."

 

[NagandEmerald]

@Retroliser @Jace

Karl's tapping began more fervent as he thought deeply on whether he should accept or not...it was a tempting offer, but Singapore was a country on the other side of the world; making any long-standing commitments to them in the form of protocols would be potentially dangerous, especially with so many communist nations nearby. He supposed that it would be fine if they joined the Iron Ring for communication, since it could be discussed on what was planned to be done, but...

"Hmm...Your Majesty, if I may, who would you have in mind for an ambassador? As much as I am inclined to agree that the communist nations of East Asia are a threat, I cannot overstate that our involvement with the Kingdom of Singapore may be limited in what kind of protocols we could craft together. I want to ensure that such an ambassador would know that this is not an alliance, first and foremost, and that this is a means of communications."

 

[Jace]

"Off the top of my head, I don't have anyone in mind for the position, but this information will be relayed back to my cabinet once our discussion is over. I would like to note though that I did not wish to bring my nation into an alliance solely based upon the threats to our sovereignty. Our nation does not have the land mass of those aforementioned powers, but our military is more than capable of defending our nation against several of those that were listed. It also wasn't my attention to drag European nations into our problems either. While I believe that our values align with the Iron Ring, what you're offering to me doesn't sound beneficial, or better said, perhaps deflecting? I'm open to the idea of communication, but my intuition is telling me that any further involvement might find Singapore relegated to a second-class, which is not the message I interpreted from Turkey's previous declaration."

@NagandEmerald @Retroliser