Message to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs

[Moe]

"Yes, by all means." Minister rises from his chair and then goes to a desk and pulls out a brown dossier file. When he returns he opens the file and shows it to the CDO.

"I believe this is what we have on file. The Bonafice Straits between Corsica and Sardinia seems pretty well-defined."

@Logan

 

[Logan]

"I believe that this map, at least referring to the boundaries between our two countries, is reasonable, though I caution you that, in the interests of stability, I do have the intent to claim the Strait of Sicily, barring Tunisia's 12-mile territorial waters."

 

[Moe]

"I would remind you the maps also maritime jurisdictions as well. As far as the Strait of Sicily, I am unconcerned, that is something for you and the Tunisians to workout yourselves."

The Minister would then pause and take a sip of coffee.

"is this all of the territorial issues you would like to discuss? If so, could we move on to trade and possibly joint exercises involving humanitarian relief, or naval search, board and seizure exercises."

@Logan

 

[Logan]

"Not that I can think of, most of the Territorial disputes between our countries are moot at this point, though I would ask your country's current opinion on the Mont Blanc summit - which I think is sort of pointless. Rome maintains the position that the three summits are shared, rather than lying solely in France. I imagine your country maintains the opposite position. I don't think this is something that is too important, though, and I'm merely curious. As far as trade is concerned, what is France willing to offer and what are you looking for?"

 

[Logan]

@Moe

 

[Moe]

"No, we do not believe at all that they are shared. According to my records, Aosta Valley belong to Italy, which the summit covering Ferret and Viny in Italy. As far as trade, from the look of our export lists, they pretty much amount to the same thing. Perhaps we need to think out of the box a bit.

From France we can export; Perfumes, Beverages & Spirits, Mineral fuels, and optical equipment and other technical apparatus,

@Logan

 

[Logan]

"Hmmm. I would suppose that the best my country could offer would be our automotive vehicles, especially considering Italy's history in providing luxury and quality automobiles for the world. In return, I believe beverages and spirits would do well in return. While our vineyards produce fine enough wines, there's not quite anything like the French wine industry.

Of course, we are also willing to provide a 1-for-1 trade on motor vehicles. Renault would provide some competition in our rather sparse consumer car market."

 

[Moe]

"Agreed on your vehicles. I was not thinking of luxury vehicles as much as I was for the common man, which you bring you a good point in brining up Renault. I propose we we trade automobiles and wine and spirits from the French side and automobiles and another off the book export of your choice to France."

@Logan

 

[Logan]

"Italy could export clothing products, both our designer and consumer clothing markets are very robust, and I believe would be a fair choice for both our countries."

 

[Moe]

"This definitely sounds agreeable. Vehicles and Wine and spirits from the French side and vehicles and clothing from the Italian side. We will export them weekly overland as a sign of openness and trust on both sides of the border.

With that done, given what has been determined to be a terrorist attack in Norway, would you support data sharing on nefarious groups that would pose a threat to either of our governments. We lived through a wave of Islamic terrorist attacks in the late eighties and early nineties but those movements have for the most been stamped out by our current political regime."

@Logan

 

[Logan]

"We've similarily gone through a wave of terrorist attacks, granted they've been domestic, in the recent years, hence why Rome is as it is today. I would suggest an intelligence-sharing agreement, where it concerns terrorist threats, at the very least."

 

[Moe]

This will be most important, and French intelligence agree to share all information with you that may pertain to any threats against French or Italian interests, including subversive groups. With one last thing, we wish to change the trade routes to ports as we currently lack cargo ships to go over the border. We hope this will not be a problem.

@Logan