[CAN] Phone Call to Ukraine

[Alex]

Minister John Manley of the Department of Global affairs would use an encrypted and private line to dial his Ukrainian counter-part, Minister Konstyantyn Gryshchenko to discuss bilateral relations between their two nations. In his office, alone, the Minister would wait for the phone to be answered.

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Minister John Manley would be placed on hold for a few minutes before a secretary transferred the call to Minister Konstyantyn Gryshchenko. He would answer on an encrypted line in the privacy of his office.

"Konstyantyn Gryshchenko, Minister of Ukraine's Foreign Affairs, I apologize for the wait. I see Canada had quite an interesting election this month. I hope all is well for you over there."

Alex

 

[Alex]

"The wait is no problem at all, Minister Gryshchenko, it is good to meet you. I am the Canadian Minister of Global Affairs: John Manley. Yes... the election was quite surprising. I suppose one can find extremism hiding anywhere...

But dear Minister, I haven't called you to discuss that. I am calling in the hopes that Canada and Ukraine may be able to form a proper diplomatic relationship. How are things in Ukraine at the moment?"

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Alex

Private/encrypted

“I suppose you’re right,” He nodded slowly. “Ukraine is slowly but surely finding its place in the free-world. The future seems bright and we are happy to be forming our own international relations. Since Canada was the first Western country to recognize Ukraine as an independent state in 1991, and given the sizable Ukrainian-Canadian population within your country, we would be more than happy to establish diplomatic ties with Canada.

Was there anything in particular you had in mind for discussion, or shall we start off the top with trade?”

 

[Alex]

"Well, if I may be so blunt Minister, the Royal Armed Forces were also interested in wondering if Ukraine would be willing to sell any of its military equipment. I know this is quite fast to ask so if you wish to not sell yet I completely understand. However, if you would be willing in doing so the Royal Armed Forces were interested in acquiring six-hundred and forty T-84 Main Battle Tanks, two-thousand six-hundred and forty KrAZ-6322 Troop Carrier Trucks, and two-hundred ATs-12-63221 Fuel Tankers. We would also be interested in acquiring about the Antonov An-70 and if it's available for sale."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Alex
Private/Encrypted

“We do like our friends to be well armed,” he leaned back in his leather office chair. “And Canada, as a free and democratic country, must be able to defend itself properly. The issue is—and I hate to bring it up again—the issue is the Nationalist Party.

We know the Canadian military would never allow its arsenal to fall into the hands of belligerent actors, we aren’t worried about that. Their current level of legislative power doesn’t cause us too much concern either. It seems unlikely they could convince the rest of Parliament to pass anything too extreme… What we do worry about is the violence their presence within government might encourage. That they might embolden private citizens to harm or harass others. There are many Ukrainians in Canada, but I don’t believe slavs fit into the Nationalist Party’s vision of the future..

Before we discuss sales, I would need an agreement allowing more staff at our diplomatic missions in Canada. That way, if any Ukrainians in your country need help, they will have greater resources at their service.”

 

[Alex]

"Hmm... yes, I can see your concern regarding the Nationalist Party. Firearms are extremely regulated within Canada and if the police were to ever catch a member of this party or their 'personal protection' group with an illegal firearm or without proper paperwork swift and hard action will be dealt. However, I cannot promise you that no violence would occur in the future so I will discuss with my government on allowing more Ukrainian staff and security in your embassy and consulates. Just how much more staff are you considering?"

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"I think ten additional staff at each mission would suffice. Once that is sorted out I would be happy to discuss defense deals."
Alex

 

[Alex]

"I'll put forth the request to the necessary individual. If you wouldn't mind being on hold for just a few moments?" With that the Minister would send the Ukrainian request to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defense. No more than two minutes later, they would both reply to him: Yes. "Hello? I apologize about the wait. Both the Minister of National Defense and the Deputy Prime Minister have agreed to allow Ukraine to send ten additional staff to each of your missions."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

“Thank you very much, that is excellent news. As I said, we trust that no property of the Canadian Armed Forces would ever end up in the wrong hands, we’re simply concerned with harassment and possibly property damage perpetrated by individuals, that sort of thing. With this all sorted, Ukraine is more than willing to discuss defense sales.

Allow me to send a quick email to our defense department regarding the availability of the An-70, they usually respond quite quickly.

As far as the other equipment goes, we can do $4,000,000 per T-84 MBT which works out to $2,560,000,000 for production of 640 units. For the standard KrAZ-6322 the price is $150,000 and for 2640 of them it would cost $396,000,000 total. The ATs-12-63221 Fuel tankers are $115,000 per unit which is $23,000,000 for all 200.

The over all price tag would normally be $2,979,000,000 but, since Canada has been so accommodating with our diplomatic staff request, we will give you a discount of 15% so you’d be paying $2,532,150,000 instead. Does this sound fair to you? We value your country’s friendship, so we would be open to price negotiation."

Alex

 

[Alex]

"That seems... quite high for the T-84 tanks. Perhaps we could figure out another payment method?

How is the Ukrainian navy? I assume the Russians have quite the force in the Black Sea, perhaps we could trade equipment in return for the tanks? If you were to sell us the T-84s at the base production price we could offer the Halifax-class frigates at base production price. Six-hundred and forty T-84s at base production price is 1,600,000,000.00$ if we produced the Halifax-class frigates in return we could produce three of them for the tanks alongside transferring to you government a total of 153,584,374.93$ to cover the rest of the price of the tanks, alongside the money for the fuel tankers and the 6322s.

Or, we could put the price of the entire order and produce frigates in exchange. If the entire order is based off base production price then it would total to 1,810,064,200.00$ which would allow us to ship to you a total of four Halifax-class frigates and 381,766,874.83$ to cover the rest of the production cost on the Ukrainian side. But, we could also figure out another payment method if you wish, or if you would rather money we could also figure out a payment method through that instead.

As for the An-70s, if allowed to be purchased we would wish to purchase six in total."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Gryshchenko paused for a moment. “The reason that seems high is because it is. I apologize, usually our ministry of defense handles arms transactions. I’ve just received an email back from them with some more accurate pricing, I'll forward it to you. I apologize for the confusion there. We would prefer cash payment, but are open to a deal with the frigates if this pricing still seems inadequate to you. Unfortunately, regarding the AN-70, I’m afraid it's still in the prototype phase and won't be approved for sale for quite some time. When it is ready we'll inform you, and if you are still interested then we'll work out a price.”

Gryshchenko would forward a private and encrypted email to Minister Manley listing the prices for the products requested:

Product	Price Per Unit	# of Units	Total cost
T-84	$3,125,000	640	$2,000,000,000
KrAZ-6322	$93,750	2640	$247,500,000
KrAZ ATs-12-63221 Fuel tankers	$75,500	200	$15,100,000
		Total before discount	$2,262,600,000
		With 15% Discount	$1,923,210,000

Alex

 

[Alex]

"No worries, this pricing looks suitable to Canada. Our offer to produce frigates or any other Canadian product for Ukraine is open to you.

We have sent your nation the money. Could we ask that a specific method of production be used to fast-track our order? If Ukraine were to produce the tanks in two orders, one of 500 and another of 140 along with five orders of 500 of KrAZ-6322s and one of 140 it would result in the equipment being shipped to us much faster."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

"Of course, I see no issue with that. Do you have any special requests regarding the production of the ATs-12-63221 fuel tankers, or shall we produce all 200 at once?"

Alex

 

[Alex]

"The ATs can be produced all at once for the best production speed.

There's also another subject I wished to bring up to you. Canada is currently constructing a research and development facility to begin mass RnD projects to both make up for our lacking equipment and start-jump our technology to modern standards. We believe that Ukraine possesses a large amount of equipment and tech that we could base a lot of RnD on alongside creating new technology. We were wondering if your government would be interested in sharing technology and potentially performing joint RnD projects?"

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

He would make a note of the order specifications as Minister Manley spoke.

“It sounds like you already have some ideas in mind, where would you like to start? I’ll have to contact our Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development to ensure we’ll have our own facility constructed to assist with such projects—but as I said before, we like our friends to be sufficiently armed.”

“Oh, and before this conversation strays too far away from the original comment,” he hesitated, trying to think of the most diplomatic way to phrase his inquiry. “Earlier you mentioned the Russian Navy’s presence in the Black Sea and suggested we work out a deal for Ukraine to acquire ships. Now I'm curious, what exactly are your thoughts on the Russian Federation?"

Alex

 

[Alex]

"Please hold." An automated voice would abruptly ask. A few seconds later someone would pick up the call.

"My apologies, Minister Gryshchenko. There was an emergency election in Canada and a new government has been elected into power. I am the new Minister of Global Affairs, Edward Reid and will be taking over the discussions with you - that is, if that's okay with you?

I am uncertain of the previous government's stance on the Russian Federation but if I were you I would be concerned for all my neighbors. No offense meant but the region of Europe Ukraine resides in has been prone to... instability. As for my government's official stance of the nation, it's nonexistent. We have had no contact nor heard of any negative encounters with them by other nations.

Relating to Research and Development, I presume you have discussed the Antonov An-70? Surely your nation would be interested in reviving the project to get this plane into working order? Other potential projects could involved infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, and artillery pieces."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

He yanked the phone away from his ear, glaring at the receiver as if the automated voice had just insulted his mother. He didn’t normally mind being put on hold, but being so abruptly interrupted in the middle of a sensitive conversation had startled him to say the least. By the time Gryshchenko put the receiver back to his ear, he could hear Minister Ried giving his introduction.

“I see, yes, that’s perfectly fine,” he dragged the words out. It seemed odd that Minister Manley would be dismissed while on a call. “I hope nothing too serious has happened, I have yet to receive a briefing on the situation. How did each of the parties fair this time around?"

He began to type out yet another email as he spoke, pressing the keys as softly as he could. “Instability?” He chuckled. “You’re not wrong. But what you just said about ‘no negative encounters’ gives us some hope.”

“And yes, the AN-70 was mentioned. It’s currently unavailable but with some research and development, who knows. I’m not sure if your predecessor had time to inform you, but Ukraine will need to construct a new facility for such projects. Is Canada willing to wait for that work to be completed?”

Alex

 

[Alex]

"No. Nothing too severe, the emergency election was brought up by the fact that the previous party lost its majority within the House of Commons. Although, it would appear that the Norwegian ambassador of the Global Assembly believes it's the end of the world that the Canadian people would dare to vote my party into majority and power. I'm not certain what the ambassador is attempting to sanction us for, everything that he 'has' against us seems to be nothing more than allegations and misinterpretations or straight-out lies." He stopped and clicked his tongue. "My apologies once again, Minister Gryshchenko, you weren't communicating with the last government to discuss politics. We are more than willing to wait for that work to be completed, I was also informed by the Minister of Finance that if Ukraine needs we can fund half of your construction."

GingeOrCringe

 

[GingeOrCringe]

Alex
private/encrypted

Gryshchenko had graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations—the Harvard of the USSR—He wasn’t an idiot. He was fairly certain he understood just which party Reid was representing.

“Internal politics do impact a country’s foreign policy, at least when we’re talking about federal elections. We don’t mind being more informed on Canada’s inner workings… For example, it would be good to know if the new parliament is going to uphold the deal we had in place with your predecessors. We had arranged for extra staff to be posted at our embassies… Ukraine is upholding it’s end. Some of your defense orders are already complete.”

“As for Ukraine’s research and development facility, we project the coast at roughly $900,000,000. If Canada is still willing to help finance, we would prefer to have the $450,000,000 upfront--the transfer should either be encrypted or perhaps labeled as foreign aid. This way, if the sanctions do pass, we will be able to complete the project on our own and share instructions with you... privately."

"Ukraine is a new country and for now our independence is quite fragile. As you pointed out yourself, we live in an incredibly unstable region of the world. We are very anxious to build up our defenses as soon as possible.”