OOC: I’ve talked with Lazlowia, and thus, he is going to let me send my Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations to his country.
IC:
Eszter Melisa Cantu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations, sighed as she put down the phone. She had spent almost thirty minutes trying to explain to the new king of the Confederacy of Vulshain, Samuil Rainard, why it wasn’t a good idea for him to visit Lazlowia. “Why on Earth did our new king have to be completely clueless when it comes to being a world leader?” She had to explain, in detail, of Lazlowia’s suspicions towards Vulpines, a result of tensions between Vekaiyu and Listonia. Eszter wasn’t a bigot, in fact, she deeply despised any form of discrimination or bigotry. Her intolerance of bigotry got her in trouble in school when she used to beat up bullies or the popular girls, a lot. She didn’t mind working for a Vulpine. She even thought they were cute with their fur, tails, and ears. She remembered when she almost got her hand bitten off for grabbing a Vulpine vixen’s tail, just because she wanted to touch it. From that day, she swore never to grab another person’s tail ever again.
Brushing aside a lock of red hair from her face, she decided to get on with her work. She loved politics; heck, her major in college was in international diplomacy. She could speak in Hungarian, her native language, as well as English, Dutch, and Russian. She could speak a little bit of Latin. When she moved to Vulshain, she had thought English was the most often used language in her new home. She was quite surprised when she discovered that the official languages were Unonian and Lobonese, two languages she had no idea how to speak. Luckily, English was also spoken.
Sighing once more, she picked up her phone and had the operator put her through to the government of Lazlowia. Eszter had to be careful, as this was a minefield where the wrong word or move could spell disaster. This was the main reason why she didn’t want King Rainard to be the one to go to Lazlowia. Eszter didn’t even want him to do the diplomacy when he went on his international tour in order to improve relations with the rest of the world. She waited for the Lazlowian president to answer the phone.
The call that Eszter made was directed to Bakos Kristóf, the Director of the Presidential Office.
“-Hallo, this is the Presidential Office, how may I help you?”
Eszter heard the reply from the other end, “-Hallo, this is the Presidential Office, how may I help you?”
She replied, “Yes, this is Ms. Eszter Melisa Cantu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations for the Confederacy of Vulshain. I’m calling to see if it is possible for me to travel to your nation, Lazlowia, in order to open up diplomatic channels between Vulshain and Lazlowia. I can come at anytime you feel appropriate for me to visit. His Majesty, King Samuil Rainard, hopes to improve the relations between our two countries. May I ask who I am speaking to?” Eszter waited for her answer.
“-This is the Director of the Presidential Office. In matters regarding foreign affairs you must contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I’m forwarding your call to there.”
Eszter was relatively lucky, since she only had to go through four clerks in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before she was put in line with her opposite number, Radics Jázon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“-So as I understand,”-said Jázon-" you want to make an official visit to our country. I see no problem with it. Of course, you must know, that the organisation of this visit takes time, and therefore the visit can only made in early August earliest."
Eszter listened to the Lazlowian foreign minister. Replying, “I understand Mr. Jázon. An improvement of relations between Lazlowia and Vulshain would benefit both of our nations. About setting up a date to visit, would August 6 be appropriate?”
“-The date is acceptable. I will inform the president about the visit.”
OOC: I think we can move to the actual visit now.
Eszter replied, “Thank you, Mr. Jázon. I will be arriving there soon. I look forward to the visit. Again, thank you for taking the time in improving relations between our two nations.” Hanging up, Eszter sighed. “Well, now is the tough part,” she said to herself as she started working on everything and anything she would need upon visiting Lazlowia.
OOC: By the way, Vulshain’s national anthem is ‘Vulshain shall never falter’. I think most nations play the anthem of the visiting head’s nation.
The day of the offical visit eventually came, and the city of Lazlowgrad, the capital of Lazlowia was prepared. The police has secured the route that the official convoy will take, they towed away any vehicle that parked along the route despite the official orders, and policemen patroled the area. The Lazlowgrad Airport also has a bigger than usual number of guards and policemen. Waiting for the plane to arrive was a detachment of the honor guard and Radics Jázon.
Eszter’s plane, a Boeing 777, was nearing Lazlowgrad’s airport. The pilot contacted the control tower letting them know that the Vulshainian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations was on her way. “This is Confederate Diplomatic Flight 104-A requesting permission to land.” As they waited for landing clearance, Eszter looked out her window at the capital city of Lazlowia. She smiled as this was the part she enjoyed, visiting other countries.
“-Roger 104-A, you’re cleared for landing on runway 3.”-answered the tower. The airplane landed without trouble and taxied on to the ramp. The stairs were moved to the aircraft door. From the bottom of the stairs a red carpet led to the car bearing Vulshian’s flag. The lazlowian honor guard lined the carpet on one side. Radics Jázon greeted Eszter.
“-Greetings, miss Cantu. On behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of Lazlowia I welcome you to our country.”
OCC: Oh, and by the way, in case you don’t know, hungarians, like the chinese, the japanese, the koreans and the bajorans from Star Trek use the Eastern name order, which means that the surname goes before the given name. That means that Jázon is the given name. If that confuses you, I can switch to western name order.
OOC: It’s okay. We’ll do it in the Hungarian order. BTW, Eszter is a human.
IC:
Eszter smiled as Radics Jázon greeted her. Speaking in Hungarian, she replied, “Thank you, Mr. Jázon Radics. I appreciate you and your nation in permitting me to visit Lazlowia. I am looking forward to improving relations between our two nations.” She stuck out her hand.
Jázon shook her hand and motioned towards the car as the chauffeur opened the rear door. The car left the airport, escorted by four policemen on motorcycles. The road leading to the city went through the suburbs. Mostly it was rural landscape, which gave way to high rise apartments as they came nearer to the city. The car was mostly silent inside, as it sped along the road.
“-So how was your trip?”-asked Jázon.
Eszter looked out of the window as the scenery began to change. She thought about what to say when Jázon beat her to it, asking how was her trip.
Smiling, she replied, “It went very well, Mr. Jázon. I am grateful that you and your country allowed me to visit. The king had wanted to come, but I explained to him that may not have been the best idea since, well, your people are suspicious towards Vulpines.”
“-The actions of Vekiayu and Listonia have left our government suspicious of those countries. Since your country has a fox majority and has close ties to Vekiayu, we are naturally suspicious, therefore a state visit is out of the question. In twenty minutes we will be at the Parliament, where you’ll be meeting with the president, other members of the cabinet and the leaders of the Communist Party. There we can go into the details. Do you have any questions?”
After listening to Jázon’s reply about the reasons why Lazlowia would be suspicious of Vulshain, she nodded. “I agree, Mr. Jázon, and no I do not have any questions at this time. I am looking forward to meeting the leaders of your nation. There is one question I do have. Were you surprised that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations would be human, considering Vulshain’s Vulpine majority?”
The car turned on to Revolution avenue, which led directly to the house of the Parliament. When it was built in 1933 it was surrounded by a large green area, but nowdays it is in the middle of the city, with only a small park surrounding it. An interesting sign of Lazlowia’s recent history was the motto on the frontal facade of the building, above the main entrence. Originally it read “For God, King and Country A.D. MCMXXXIII” in latin, it was now covered with a red banner reading “No revolution is possible without support of the working people!” in hungarian.
“-I’m hardly surprised by anything these days, miss Cantu.”-answered Jázon-“I guess your king wanted the government to be made up of ministers from different minorities to represent some kind of national unity, especially since your last conflict was fought along racial lines.”
“Actually, Mr. Jázon, the conflict against Merrill Rivers and his Republican Regime was more about removing a deranged dictator from power than racial issues. Under Rivers’ ironfist, many suffered, especially the working-class.” Turning to look at the Parliament building, Eszter was amazed at it. “Your Parliament building is most impressive, Mr. Jázon.” She waited for the car to stop and awaited to be let out.
The room where conference took place was -like the rest of the building- built in an art deco style. The only furniture were the big table and the chairs. Eszter was intorduced to President Lazlow, the Ministers of Interior, Commerce, Defence and Culture, and to the Deputy First Secretary of the Lazlowian Communist Party.
“-I suggest we start the meeting.”-said Lazlow-“Which issue do you want to address first?”
Smiling, Eszter introduced herself. “Thank you, President Lazlow. I am glad that you and your government allowed me to come here today. My name, by the way is, Cantu Eszter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Relations for the Confederacy of Vulshain.” Taking a seat across from President Lazlow, she said, “One of the things that my government is interested in is for you to recognize the independence and sovereignity of Listonia. Now, I know that many of you would rather eat a hat than do that, and frankly, I would join you as I do not like Listonia’s leader, Vulshain’s government has offered to put some pressure on Listonia in backing off of Elephana, in exchange for recognizing Listonia’s sovereignity.”
Eszter waited for their responses.
“-While we appreciate your personal opinion, Miss Cantu, you must understand that this is not about big ugly humans hating poor cuddly foxes. When the Listonian crisis was resolved, the treaty stated, that Vekiayu can not interfere in Listonian matters, especially in millitary matters, and called for a peacefill resolution about this corridor in Elephana. However, since than Listonia and Vekiayu showed their utter contempt towards this treaty, treating it as just a peice of scrap. Vekiayu armed Listonia with nuclear missiles in a defiance of the treaty. It was first the government of Drakkengard which rewoked it’s recognition, and when Vekiayu expelled the drakkengardi diplomats from their country, we showed solidarity with Drakkengard and so we also revoked our recognition. In it’s current state Listonia can not be accepted as a legitimate country, and along with Vekiayu is a menace. But I have to ask bluntly, is the government of Vulshian so naive that they think is issue can be solved solely by appealing to our hearts, or is your king already a stooge of Vekiayu?”