GA-Menghe Treaty of Mutual Friendship
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The GA-Menghe Treaty of Mutual Friendship (Menghean: 지애-대멩 상호 우호 조약 / GA-大孟相互友好條約, Ji-Ae Dae Meng Sangho Uho Joyak) is a treaty of friendship between Menghe and the member states of the Grand Alliance. It was first signed in 1996 as a largely formal non-aggression agreement, but in 2007 it was significantly expanded through the addition of the Nine-Point Agreement on Security and Cooperation.
Background
After the Decembrist Revolution, Menghe initiated a program of détente with Septentrion's major capitalist powers, abandoning the DPRM's policy of unpredictable, aggressive rhetoric in favor of a more neutral tone. This rhetorical turn also included concrete measures, such as dismantling Menghe's nascent nuclear weapons and opening the country to trade.
Despite these measures, an aura of suspicion still hung over Menghe's relations with GA member states. Menghe's leaders remained hostile to what they saw as Casaterran imperialist influence in the developing world, and the GA remained distrustful of Menghe's lingering cooperation with the Federation of Socialist Republics. While the two sides never came to blows, they remained in a state of strategic rivalry punctuated by contentious naval exercises in the South Menghe Sea.
While some hardliners in the Menghean government pressed for an immediate military buildup, Choe Sŭng-min responded with a "Pivot West" strategy based on improving ties with the Grand Alliance. This pivot was driven by a number of factors, including a recognition that the capitalist states had better electronics, larger markets for Menghean exports, and a larger military presence close to Menghe. It also came amidst a steady deterioration of relations with the FSR, stemming from the latter's support for ethnic cleansing in Polvokia and Menghe's crackdown on Christian missionaries.
Policymakers in many Western countries welcomed Menghe's overtures, hoping to exploit this opportunity to drive a wedge between Menghe and Septentrion's other socialist states. While the initial agreement was controversial, especially given Choe's ongoing consolidation of power and growing personality cult, diplomats from Menghe and the GA member states met in Sunju in August of 1996 to negotiate on an agreement.
Original 1996 version
The original GA-Menghe Treaty of Friendship, signed in 1996, was a relatively modest non-aggression pact. Menghe affirmed that it had no intention to export its ideology abroad by force, and that its main goal was peaceful development under a defensive military. GA member states, for their part, recognized the legitimacy of Choe Sŭng-min's authoritarian rule and promised not to make any effort to instigate regime change by force. Both sides also promised to alert their counterpart to any upcoming military exercises, and to permit observers to attend in order to ensure their peaceful intent.
Though optimistic in some of its aims, the original 1996 treaty was vaguely worded and consisted mainly of a formal declaration of principles both sides had already articulated independently. The only concrete terms it included were those regarding military exercises, and even these lacked a formal enforcement mechanism. Nevertheless, it was an important milestone in improving trust between Menghe and the GA.
Nine-Point Agreement on Security and Cooperation
The Ummayan Civil War and the accelerated Menghe-Maverica split that followed it placed new strains on Menghean foreign relations. Two neighboring countries, Maverica and Innominada, were now at the brink of war with Menghe, and the deadly clash with the Tyrannian navy off the Naseristani coast had severely soured relations with New Tyran. Faced with a long-standing breakdown in negotiations over the status of Altagracia, Choe Sŭng-min decided to follow the pragmatic route by tightening relations with the GA, which had the largest naval presence around Menghe's periphery.
In addition to reaffirming the core principles of the 1996 agreement, the 2007 addendum to the treaty added a series of new obligations that amounted to nine substantive obligations, earning it the term "Nine-Point Agreement on Security and Cooperation."
- GA member states will bar the export of military-grade and dual-use equipment and electronics to Maverica, Naseristan, and Innominada, with the exception of semi-automatic firearms intended for the civilian market.
- Menghe will bar the export of military-grade and dual-use equipment and electronics to the Federation of Socialist Republics and its allies, and will cease to import military-grade equipment from that bloc.
- GA member states will lighten their restrictions on the sale of military-grade and dual-use equipment to Menghe, by granting Menghe normal export-destination status or equivalent status in domestic regulation and allowing domestic arms companies to coordinate with Menghean ones in joint development efforts.
- Menghe affirms that it will respect the intellectual property protections of imported, license-produced, and jointly developed equipment, and will under no conditions allow this equipment or classified information regarding its design and capabilities to fall into CNCS hands.
- Menghe will take reasonable measures to discourage the Ummayan government from supporting terrorist groups, including the threat of an arms embargo, if necessary.
- GA member states will grant diplomatic recognition to the Ummayan government, and begin negotiations on resuming normal trading rights.
- The GA will establish a joint liaison office to the Menghean Ministry of National Defense, and both parties will make use of this office to clarify their military intentions, defuse situations with a potential to escalate to direct conflict, and coordinate their actions in joint peacekeeping operations.
- The GA and Menghe will conduct joint naval exercises at least once every two years in the South Menghe Sea, with the scale and frequency determined and updated by the joint liaison office and the Ministry of National Defense.
- The GA and Menghe formally affirm that the Able Vigil Accords and the Commonwealth of North Casaterran States, as well as their indirect allies, represent the leading threat to peace, freedom, and sovereignty in Septentrion, and agree to coordinate on peacetime and possible wartime measures to contain these alliances.
Effects
The Nine-Point Agreement greatly tightened strategic cooperation between Menghe and the Grand Alliance, but it did not make Menghe a GA member, as some defense analysts had hoped. Choe Sŭng-min and his government regarded it as a "pact among equals," and by extension a recognition that Menghe was entitled to special great-power status. Menghean diplomats acted on this recognition in 2015, establishing the Namhae Front, a formal alliance between Menghe and several of its neighbors, while continuing to affirm their interest in Namhae-GA cooperation.
At a broader level, the increasingly close alignment between Menghe and the GA had the effect of polarizing Septentrion's once-fragmented cold war back toward two major camps. Infuriated that Menghe had restricted its arms trade and tightened cooperation with its main rival pact, the FSR increased its support to Maverica, which was also in need of a new ally. This set off a spiraling decay of Menghe-FSR relations, from simple non-engagement in 2007 to active rhetorical hostility in the late 2010s.