A Conference for the French

[Serenierre]

Château de Charbonne
Paris

The Heads of State and Government from all the Francophone nations sat here in one room. The grand hall of the Château de Charbonne, with its forty five feet high ceiling adorned with ornate murals, made by the masters of the past, stared down onto the various nations' delegations. The various murals told a story. The story of Belmont. From its very founding to the defeat of Marquette. Everything in this room was supposed to impress and awe anyone in it. The very purpose of the room was show off the money and opulence in which the monarch lived. That was the original purpose, but today, it was just the biggest room available for the meeting.

The meeting had been the idea of the Queen. Paris was seeing increasingly that the Francophone nations were pulling each other further apart and the alliances of the past were treading onto uncertain ground. Belmont took pride in being the center of the Francophone world and saw it as its responsibility to make sure the rest of the nations remained true to their roots. When Millerand was asked to organize the meeting, he had moved fast to do so. He also wanted to keep the French bound together in a loose sort of alliance.

Millerand switched on the mic in front of him. "Your Majesties. Prime Ministers of French states. It is a great honor for us" he pointed to Queen Diana, "to have all the Kings, Queens, Grand Dukes and Prime Ministers of the French nations together in one room. It is our hope that these meetings will bring our nations closer together and I hope that we may be able to look past our alliance allegiance and work together as we have done so in the past" Millerand switched off his mic and waited for the others to begin.​

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

The new Chancellor,Jean Rouve, had quietly taken office the day before the meeting began. He glanced about the room. Quite ornate. He recognized many of the characters depicted in the murals. He was a bit impressed with the artwork but his mind began wondering how much money was spend on preserving them. He threw off his though and keyed his microphone.

"Bonjour ladies and gentleman. Some of you I have worked with before while on the foreign affairs committee. Some of you I have met at a social function. All I can say is that it is a pleasure to be in such company. I hope together we can advance to make a better future.

 

[Montelimar]

As he entered the grand hall, King Armand was a little disappointed, not with the room, as it was as grand now as it was when he had seen it as a boy, but disappointed in the thought that Queen Diana had asked him here in an attempt to impress him. Parisians have always had the impression that they were the center of Frankish culture, something they constantly advertise, but they may get an arguement from the citizens of Fond du Loc, Metz and Valmy.

Sitting down, Armand decides to give Diana the benfit of the doubt, that she truely wishes to make an effort to mend diplomatic fences. He will at the least, hear her out.

When Millerand and then Rouve finish speaking, Armand nods to Foreign Affairs Minister Mezinac, who then stands to address those present.

"Your Royal Majesty. His Most Catholic Majesty, King Armand I thanks you for the invitation and that it is a pleasure to once again to be the guest in this grand hall. It is His Majesty's hope as well that this meeting will result in better and brighter future for all the Frankish Realms."

 

[Lorraine]

King Charles V, along with his First Minister, Francois Joseph, duc de Choiseul, sit next to the Montelimarians, and as Foreign Affairs Minister Mezinac finishes speaking for King Armand, Choiseul stands.

"On behalf of His Royal Catholic Majesty, King Charles V, and myself, we too thank Her Majesty for the invitation and appreciate her desire to create a closer and a more unitied francophone world."

 

[Papal States]

Marc Leblanc, born in Belmont, the Secretary of the Holy See and head responsable for the interior affairs, was spokesman for the Papal States. The nation had the non-spoken Latin-Tiburian as official language, together with French. The last one was the normally used language in the Papal States.

He had taken a seat next to the Lorraine delegation, and it was his turn to introduce himself.

"Au nom du sainte père, et de l'état pontificale, je remercie sa majesté qui a pris l'inititive de cette recontre. On a l'honneur d'être ensemble, et tous qui est ici sera d'accord, au plus beau château de la plus belle ville du monde".

For a native Belmontien, it wasn't hard to make this introduction seem coming from his heart.

EDIT: *translation* In name of the Holy Father, and the whole Papal States, I wish to thank Your Higness for taking the inititive for this meeting. We have the hounor to be together -and everyone would state this- in the most beautiful castle of the most beautiful city in the world.

 

[Aquitania]

When he had accepted the invitation, it was Grand Duke Jean's assumption it was a meeting of just the francophone monarchies, it had not occured to him that the Papal States would also send a representative. So it was a surprise when he saw the Secretary of the Holy See in attendance and had made sure that the First Minister Choisel understood the implications. The Duke of Choiseul stood.

""On behalf of His Most Catholic Highness, Grand Duke Jean III and myself we thank our most gracious hostess, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Diana, for the invitation and for the most splendid setting for this conference. I also convey His Highness' hopes to Her and Your Majesties, Your Eminence and Your Excellencies, his hopes for a successful conclusion of what history may deem a most significant gathering."

 

[Frescania]

The limousine seemed to be flying, but he was sure time was on his side. Opening his folder once more before the car got to the meeting, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Julio Valdez read the papers that was giving to him by the Chancellor.

In fact, things were not so organized as Fortaleza Real made it looked or maybe it was because the French Conference was never giving a definite date until the last minute. Either way both the president (head of state) and chancellor (head of government) could not attend the meeting as it interfere with the AGE meeting, which was more important for them. So it was up to Valdez to represent Frescania.

The car made a brutal stop and the delegation of six plus the secretary got out. They swiftly moved forward and entered the halls. Waiting no seconds, Valdez announce their arrival.

"Dear delegates, I am please to be here. I am Julio Valdez, secretary of foreign affairs for Frescania. It is unfortunate both the president and the chancellor could not come, but they send their best wishes to you all."

The delegation swiftly sat down in their place while Valdez took a drink of water from the cup near him.

 

[Great Engellex]

Lady of Cayenne, Marlene Noiret, was late in her arrival due to a situation with the invitation.

Unlike the fair majority of representatives present within the Francophone summit, Marlene Noiret was not representing the state, the Free Cities Union, she instead was representing the City State of Cayenne as the Lady of that city. She was particularly pleased to see the Chancellor of Marquette in attendance as she personally advocated for strengthening of ties between the Cayenne, and to an extent the FCU, with it’s former colonial power the Kingdom of Marquette.

Despite this being an affair of Cayenne and not the FCU as a whole the State Secretary of Foreign Affairs had agreed to sending the Minister of Foreign Affairs along with Marlene Noiret and her official retinue. This was to ensure that the right advice and apparatus was present to assist the Lady of Cayenne should something not within her remit needed to be agreed and/or signed.

Although congregated were the Kings, Queens and Grand Dukes of the French nations, Her Grace felt confident and by no means out of her depth here.

 

[Serenierre]

Château de Charbonne
Paris​

Millerand sat quietly as the various delegations made the introductory remarks. With the last delegation having just spoken, Millerand took a sigh of relief and switched on his mic. His booming baritone voice reverberated through the grand room of the Chateau Charbonne. "I am happy to see that so many, nearly all, of the Francophone countries have sent delegations to this conference. It is my hope that, this meeting will result in something we French lost in the 1750s being found again. Francophone cooperation."

Millerand went silent for a moment. He looked across the room, at the faces of the foreign dignitaries, the members of the press and even some of the guards. "We, here in Paris, would like this meeting to lead up to the creation of an economic union amongst our nations. The advantages of any such union would be lasting and solidify our economies further. I know that achieving this goal will be hard but I am not one to give up without trying." Millerand switched off his mic and sat back down on his seat and surveyed his counterparts, looking hard to see how they were reacting.

Millerand, in his heart, knew that these talks aimed for something which should have been achieved decades ago and he hoped that the others would be willing to come together. Although he was willing to give this conference a chance, already, he was formulating PLAN B. Must be prepared, he thought.
​

OOC: If any other Frenchies want to take part, just do so.

 

[Montelimar]

Mezinac stands again when Millerand finishes.

"Monsieur Millerand. Francophone cooperation and economic union is all fine and good and would likely sound impressive in the newspapers, but Prime Minister, I do hope you have some more substantial proposals to introduce to us than just some vague and flowery words."

 

[Serenierre]

Millerand observed Mezinac as the latter spoke. Millerand cleared his throat, put on his glasses and switched on his mic. He looked at the man in front of him. "Mr. Foreign Minister" he began in his trademark disarming tone "since you wish to hear what I propose, I shall make you wait no longer." He looked down at a piece of paper and began once again "We have a total of five proposals. One economic, one defence, one non-aggression and one with foreign policy and another for defence coordination. And I shall address each of these proposals one by one." he paused for a second, allowing anyone who wanted to object to do so. With no one saying anything, Millerand continued.

"First let us cover the economic proposal. The Francophone bloc is one of the most affluent in the world. Our economies are one of the strongest and most advanced in the world. That is something we achieved by working alone or with people out of our own bloc... but I ask you to imagine if we were to work together in the spheres of economics. To do so, we propose the creation of a Francophone customs union. Included in the Customs Union will be a Free Trade and Free Travel clauses. This customs union will greatly increase the trade amongst our nations and, according to our statistics, will be beneficial for each of our economies. Of course everything we discuss here is subject to modification if a better idea is brought up by anyone. And I would like to say to everyone here, hear all the proposals before you with an open mind."

"Foreign Minister, your thoughts?"​

 

[Montelimar]

"For the most part, M. Millerand, Monteliamr has such open trade and travel with most here, so the idea of extending such to others is not beyond the realm of possiblity."

 

[Serenierre]

"Alright" he nodded and continued "Next, I propose a non-aggression and arms cooperation pact. I realize some of us here are already part of well established alliances but it is my opinion that we should have another option as well. This treaty will include a clause which will make it illegal for signatories to join any groups which are actively working against the other members. This proposal will also allow our various arms industry companies to work together and we will be able to share technology with each other and use equipment with the same requirements."

 

[Frescania]

"We cannot sign a non aggression pact and arms cooperation that would put the community over our already commitment to A.G.E. I am certain others present from other alliances would agree with us on this subject."

 

[Serenierre]

"I should tell you... that each of these proposals shall be on a separate treaty. So those of you unsure, or unwilling, to commit to this will just have to not sign on the treaty for non-aggression and arms cooperation treaty and sign on the ones they are willing to commit to."

 

[Lorraine]

Duc de Choiseul, speaks up.

"If such is the case, His Majesty will listen and consider all the proposals, but, where Lorraine and Belmont is concerned, are we to assume that these treaties will be replacing the age old treaties between the Kingdoms? And would such also apply to Lorraine's other treaties? We must be careful on how we word these agreements as diplomatic conflicts will assuredly follow."

 

[Serenierre]

"Your Grace" Millerand said to the Duc de Choiseul. "The long standing treaties between our two Kingdoms shall remain in place, as they are between only our two countries. The agreements here have a broader scope and shall not create any problem between the texts of the treaties between Belmont and Lorraine."

He took a sip of water and continued with the next proposal. "The next proposal calls for the creation of a Foreign Policy and a Defense Policy Council. The two will allow the Francophone countries to be on the same page in regards to foreign policy and defense initiatives. The two councils will also give the Francophone nations a single voice when dealing with conflicts and would allow for mediating efforts to be handled by the Foreign Policy council.

The Foreign Policy council would also allow disagreements between Francophone states to be sorted out through talks before the situation got bitter. The defense council would also try to get the various arms industries of our countries to work together on various projects.

Again, the treaties for both council's shall be separate to allow delegations a choice to belong to either one or both."

Millerand took a breath and started talking again. "Now having informed you of the proposals, I would like to revisit the proposals and give a summary."

"First, and foremost, the treaty for the creation of an economic union. The treaty would create a customs union and would allow citizens of the signatories to freely do business in all the signatory nations. The economic union treaty would also include a clause for Free Trade Agreement and a Free Travel Agreement. Both FTAs are intended to allow for greater interaction amongst the peoples of our nations."

"Second, the treaty for nonaggression and mutual defense. This treaty will be binding for the next twenty years and, as the name suggests, will be focused solely on preventing Francophone nations attacking each other or waging war against each other."

"The third, intelligence cooperation and the creation of an intelligence sharing agency. This will allow all signatories to work together in combatting terrorism and other such universal threats."

"The Fourth treaty will create the Foreign Policy council. And the fifth, the Defense Council. The details of both i have already mentioned in my speech."

"Now these are the proposals and now I urge all delegates present to start serious and in-depth discussion to get the proposals in their final form."

 

[Papal States]

Monseigneur Leblanc was the first to speak.

"I suppose the prime minister has a good cause in mind. But it seems to me those treaties are already made and signed in the mind of some people here. For the Papal States, these treaties are nevertheless unacceptable, as they are overwhelming in their quantity as in their interfearance within crucial matters of the state".

He waited and looked around.

"In each case the neutrality of our State is at risk. We cannot have the Papal States, for so long a stabile and reliable partner on the world scene when it comes to bringing peace and reason, going into an alliance that is vague and" - he hesitated - "apparently linked to the ongoing foreign policies program of some nations. We cannot be part of that."

 

[Serenierre]

"Monseigneur Leblanc, the neutrality of the Papal States is not at risk. Before you turn down this conference, hear all of the delegates. The proposals can, if majority here approve to amend it a certain way, can be changed to better suit all of us."

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Chancellor Rouve shifted in his seat. It was clear the neighboring countries had a different way of viewing the world.

"While we remain close as francophone countries, we will not be part of any free travel agreement. As you know, we operate very tight borders and the idea of an 'open border' policy is much too extreme for our stance. Second, for a free trade agreement to occur, we need time to evaluate such a proposal. Research and a defined outline of said agreement." said Rouve pausing to remove his glasses.

"As you know, we are bound by the EDF and have been a member for 36, almost 37 years. We can sign a non-aggression act, but a mutual defence agreement, for us is out of the question. As to the other proposals we are willing to consider." proclaimed Rouve in a soft, calm, yet uncomfortable tone.

"It is not our intention to break up people we call friends but we have a responsibility to the People of Marquette as you have a responsibility to your people. As Edmund the sixth once said, 'A domestic policy is foreign policy'. We deeply regret our inability to come together on these issues"