Stopping the Pebble Halfway

[Seperallis]

Despite plans for Simo Stanonik to attend in person, arrangements had to change as issues at home demanded more attention. He was, however, able to arrange for his Foreign Minister, Rens Boka, to go in his place and attend along with ambassador Valta Balode. These two would not be the ones to speak and were merely to observe and understand the events, however, trusting to the small negotiating team in attendance to provide the facts.

One of them, a Mr. Silvestris Vasils, began the meeting. "Ladies, gentlemen," he said, hands on his papers, "allow me to say, before we get to the important topic at hand, that I believe it is rather obvious to all present that should we fail to attain any agreement on any area and leave this meeting with no consensus to act, then each of our homes shall be worse for it. We are all well aware of the West Brigidna trade meetings taking place, and should those talks succeed than any one nation here, falling outside that deal, will be at a weaker bargaining position internationally in virtually all respects."

"We should make very clear that by no means does this meeting or any future agreement seek to create odds or adversaries between either two prospective blocs, and that entry into this agreement should not preclude entry to the other. The focus of our meeting , and any agreement, should seek only to benefit the stability and prosperity of our national neighborhood, regardless of the whims of far-flung actors."

Pausing to let the words process and any interpreters to get caught-up, he asked, "Can that, perhaps, be our first agreement for this meeting? Because if West Brigidna remains on our minds, as it no doubt is now, then I fear we may all simply be wasting each other's time."