Earlier this week, The Rejected Realms received a letter from The East Pacific’s delegate which asked the rhetorical question, “Citizens of The Rejected Realms, do you endorse what your Delegate said about citizens of TEP, a fellow GCR?”
The letter was not well received in The Rejected Realms and our foreign affairs staff and the relevant officials have discussed the issue thoroughly. We believe the letter was a poor attempt to personally undermine our delegate’s credibility and bordered on using a diplomatic space for a political campaign against an elected official.
A bona fide attempt to ascertain the position of The Rejected Realms should have been to contact our Foreign Affairs Officer, rather than conduct an apparent survey of our citizens on the matter. The first port of call for any diplomatic dispute is the administration on the other side, which is common knowledge in this game. We note that no attempt whatsoever was made to raise this matter with any of the appropriate officials on our side, and coupled with the rather fanciful nature of the question posed, we cannot regard this as an attempt in good faith to clarify TRR’s position on the matter.
This letter was in particular poor taste, even politically sensitive, as earlier this year members of The East Pacific were involved in a foreign campaign to undermine and influence the outcome of our Delegate Elections. While we do not attribute their actions to The East Pacific’s administration, the existence of an underlying history which includes inappropriate attempts to undermine the integrity of our Delegacy cannot be ignored as part of the context of this incident.
In a conversation with the Foreign Affairs Officer, Xoriet, TEP Ambassador to The Rejected Realms agreed that the issue would have been better resolved in private, as opposed to public. We agree. Ambassador Xoriet’s understanding is appreciated, but we must inform The East Pacific that we will be suspending The East Pacific’s forum embassy with The Rejected Realms for the next week and we hope that in the future The East Pacific will use its embassy space with The Rejected Realms more respectfully.
So TRR was not happy about what the letter contained and decided to blame us for bringing it to their attention?
I don’t follow. This was in a public chatroom and we had legitimate concerns (judging by the post on your forums). Rather than be upset with us, I suggest curbing the venom from your delegate. Regardless of if someone thinks the delegate’s word is indicative of or is not indicative of the sentiments of a region, bottom line is there’s always someone who thinks it is. It was that way when I was a delegate, and things haven’t changed much these days to say otherwise.
The East Pacific follows a general policy of non-aggression towards the various denizens of NationStates unless thoughtlessly provoked by those who make no secret of their feelings towards us, our members and our allies.
While we admit that we could have handled the situation better, and we apologize for how it has appeared the matter in our view is no less severe: the delegate of the Rejected Realms, being the well known and influential figure that he is, knowingly and openly attacked a valued and respected former delegate of our region in neutral grounds. Using language which is not acceptable in polite society to not just describe him, but several mutual citizens of both the South and East Pacific’s who came to his defense. We find that language and conduct abhorrent and are concerned that the Rejected Realms has ignored the reasons behind our complaint in favor of criminalizing us for speaking out.
The matter in question was so severe that the Channel Operators of the South Pacific, independent from the regional authority of the South Pacific gave your delegate a forty-eight hour ban for his language, and then published the full logs of the altercation in order to ensure that the matter was not hushed up or spun by any side seeking to inflate the matter beyond its current state.
We value our relationship with the Rejected Realms, as a fellow game created region but we cannot sit idly by while your Chief Executive so openly and callously insults members of our community in plain view of citizens and officials of multiple regions. In the same manner, we would not expect the Rejected Realms to sit back and do the same were our positions reversed. In the future we will attempt to address our concerns in more sensitive ways but request that should the incumbent of the Delegacy for the Rejected Realms have anything further to say about our honored members and citizens, that he addresses them to us personally rather than parading in a third party internet relay chat channel where he does not just insult us, but those around him with his lack of consideration and tact.
earlier this year members of The East Pacific were involved in a foreign campaign to undermine and influence the outcome of our Delegate Elections.
— End quote
Erm, who exactly did this and how? I have no memory of anyone trying to interfere with any ones elections…that’s not a thing…
Also, isn’t the embassy where governments are supposed to communicate with each other in a official capacity, this making it the appropriate place for this conversation?
As I made clear in my statement, if there are any concerns that TEP has, I will be more than happy to hear them. We very much value our relations with TEP, which is why we will take any complaints made in the proper way very seriously.
The issue at hand here is the manner in which TEP went about making this complaint, which was clearly inappropriate. The use made of TEP’s embassy was not for official communication, rather, for an ad hoc poll of our citizenry on whether we support our Delegate. I am sure TEP will not be too happy if we start a motion of no confidence in Ramaeus in our embassy here.
I am glad to hear that both your Delegate and Minister of Foreign Affairs agree, and hopefully this won’t be an issue in the future.
The use made of TEP’s embassy was not for official communication, rather, for an ad hoc poll of our citizenry on whether we support our Delegate.
— End quote
I don’t see how this can be seen as a poll. There’s a rhetoric question, sure, but it’s clearly one that doesn’t need answering.
What it indeed was, was a diplomatic complaint posted by TEP’s Delegate and signed accordingly. I don’t know what more you want from a diplomatic statement. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t differ from the traditional ones.
In any case, I’m merely a humble Puffin speaking for himself.
What it indeed was, was a diplomatic complaint posted by TEP’s Delegate and signed accordingly. I don’t know what more you want from a diplomatic statement. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t differ from the traditional ones.
— End quote
It didn’t have a fancy .png up top. Totes diplomatic SNAFU there.
The use made of TEP’s embassy was not for official communication, rather, for an ad hoc poll of our citizenry on whether we support our Delegate.
— End quote
I don’t see how this can be seen as a poll. There’s a rhetoric question, sure, but it’s clearly one that doesn’t need answering.
What it indeed was, was a diplomatic complaint posted by TEP’s Delegate and signed accordingly. I don’t know what more you want from a diplomatic statement. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t differ from the traditional ones.
In any case, I’m merely a humble Puffin speaking for himself.
— End quote
We disagree. The statement cannot reasonably be interpreted as official diplomatic communication, or anything but an attempt to canvass the positions of individual TRR citizens.
The statement was addressed to “Citizens of The Rejected Realms”, and the only aspect of it that called for a response from anyone was “Citizens of The Rejected Realms, do you endorse what your Delegate said about citizens of TEP, a fellow GCR?”
Nothing in the statement requested involvement or response from TRR’s Government.
We disagree. The statement cannot reasonably be interpreted as official diplomatic communication, or anything but an attempt to canvass the positions of individual TRR citizens.
The statement was addressed to “Citizens of The Rejected Realms”, and the only aspect of it that called for a response from anyone was “Citizens of The Rejected Realms, do you endorse what your Delegate said about citizens of TEP, a fellow GCR?”
Nothing in the statement requested involvement or response from TRR’s Government.
— End quote
It seems we indeed disagree.
Let me put my chain of thought clear. It’s not up to TRR to decide what messages from TEP are and are not diplomatic.
Ramaeus, our Delegate, put out a statement, signed it, and let it be delivered by the Ambassador assigned to TRR, in our Embassy in TRR. It was clearly meant to be official.
If the content of said message is not very well received, so be it. That’s another discussion. But don’t go complaining it’s not official or not diplomacy.
That’s not your call to make. Our government decides what messages of them are intended as official diplomacy.
Perhaps if merely pointing out a concern on our embassy to their forum causes this much of a hubbub, our relations with them are not as appreciated as once perceived.
