A Meeting of Nations [ATTN: Nakad]

[New Roma Republic]

Claudius International Airport
New Rome, Donum Terra, Imperial Republic of New Rome
2/13/2017
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lucretius Saturninus, stood with an aide, and a few guards in the VIP lounge at Claudius International. They were waiting for First Contact with the United Islands of Nakad. The Imperial Republic was reaching out to the island nation in hopes of gaining another ally in the region, and possibly getting a base on one of the islands. But, first was to open trade deals and make good feelings. Besides, the Caesar legitimately wanted to make good relations, despite their, peculiarities in dress, or lack there of.

In fact, that was a major problem within the planning committee. The Imperial Republic has laws banning public nudity, due to laws that were passed in the early 1900s. However, the compromise made by those on the Committee, decided to wave the laws in this case due to their cultural norms, despite the phrase "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". So here Minister Saturninus was waiting for the delegation from Nakad.

[Nakad]

Claudius International Airport
New Rome, Donum Terra, Imperial Republic of New Rome
2/13/2017

The Minister of Foreign Affairs would soon receive the call that the delegates plane had just landed. Moments later a small entourage would enter the VIP lounge. The first would be instantly recognisable as none other than the Chief Councilwoman herself, Carmen Tethys. She was accompanied by an attractive, shorter woman with long brown hair and green eyes who looked a similar age to Carmen. This was Nakad's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cate Rhodes. The third was a giant of a man who looked much older than the two women, with receding greying hair, a neatly kept beard and piercing brown eyes. This was the General Marcus Wolfen, commander of the Nakadian Defence Force.

Following them was a small squad of guards, both men and women. All they wore was a black combat webbing that just barely covered certain areas specific to their gender, black finger less gloves and black combat boots. The general was dressed like they were only with epaulettes attached to his shoulder straps indicating his rank. The two women were completely naked and barefoot, the latter being quite common for Nakadians.

"Mr. Lucretius Saturninus, I presume? Thank you for having us."

[New Roma Republic]

Claudius International Airport
New Rome, Donum Terra, Imperial Republic of New Rome
Saturninus was taken a bit aback by Chief Councilwoman Carmen Tethys. He knew what to expect, but the stark nakedness was still jarring. His glance slipped a few times down, and he felt his face heat up. However, he kept his smile, and extended his hand. "Councilwoman Tethys, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. The Caesar extends her apologies for not being here to meet you in person. Unfortunately, something came up that required her attention. However, we will take you to the Caesar's Temporary Residence now to meet her. Afterward, we will take you to the hotel which you will be staying. I hope this is good with you."

[Nakad]

The Chief Councilwoman took Saturninus' hand and shook it warmly. She kept her eyes firmly on him and smiled, she could tell this was unusual for him and would try to make it as natural as possible. While she did bring a small amount of clothing with her just in case, her personal policy was that if other countries wanted to extend relations with Nakad they would undoubtedly have to get used to the sight of nudity. It was better to break the ice now. She nodded at Saturninus' request.

"Of course, I completely understand,we still have our countries to govern no matter what. I thank you for your hospitality as well and looking forward to this visit. May I also introduce my Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cate Rhodes and General Marcus Wolfen, Commander of the Nakadian Defence Force?"

Carmen released her hand as Cate stepped forward and offered her hand, while the general simply saluted. After pleasantries would be exchanged, the Nakadians would be ready to follow Saturninus.

[New Roma Republic]

Saturninus shook Rhodes' hand, and nodded to General Wolfen. "Please follow me. We are going to stop at the Caesar's Residence before we drop you at the hotel. The area has been secured by the Praetorian Guard, the Caesar's own security force." Saturninus had them follow him to the exit. Before going outside, Saturninus turned around and an aide came up with a box. "I realize it is your custom to go around totally naked, including no shoes, but our streets, like cities streets in all nations aren't totally clean. With that being said, we have provided flip flops to protect your feet. Feel free to deny, but we felt we should offer this to you all."

[Nakad]

"Oh, thank you for the offer. We have our own." replied Carmen. "Not all of us go barefoot, as you can see from the general and our security detail. It's just a more common practice really."

Carmen would nod to one of her security detail who was carrying a backpack. The guard slipped off the pack and reached inside, pulling out a two pairs of black flip flops for the Chief Councilwoman and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The two women slipped them on and turned back to Saturninus.

"Always prepared. Nakad has pretty well enforced littering laws due to preference of being barefoot, but not everyone does."

[New Roma Republic]

Saturninus smiled "That is good to hear. Let us now go to the Caesar." He allowed the others to get into the car first, and followed. It was a stretched limo, with all the usual up armoring for governmental figures. All the routes had been secured, and guarded by the Praetorian Guard.

The drive itself took only a few minutes as traffic through the city had been diverted. When they arrived, a Staff Sergeant opened the door, and saluted as the party exited. They were escorted by an officer to the Caesar's office. When they entered, Caesar Ayanami was smiling, and walked over to the Nakad delegation. "Welcome to the Imperial Republic! I take it you are Chief Councilwoman Tethys? I am Caesar Cornelia Ayanami. I apologize for not meeting you in person at the airport, but something came up that required my attention."

[Nakad]

Carmen Tethys took in the sights of the city from her window, looking impressed. The General nodded approvingly at the discipline of the Praetorian Guard. Several thousand years of military order had not be lost. As they arrived at the office, Carmen and Cate would slip their flip flops off and placed them back in the carry bag. They all bowed respectfully in the presence of the Caesar.

"Yes, that is me. It is a pleasure to meet you, Caesar Ayanami. On behalf of myself and Nakad, I thank you for inviting us to your country. As I told your Minister of Foreign Affairs, there's no need to apologise, countries still need to be governed. I am looking forward these talks though."

[New Roma Republic]

The group headed into a room down the hall. This was one of the many negotiating rooms in the building. The two sides sat across from each other, and the Caesar started by saying "I now formally welcome you to New Rome and the start of what I hope will become a great alliance between our nations. I would like to start these talks off with trade. I would like to start trading goods with Nakad. We have a thriving motor industry, plus plenty of surplus food stores."

[Nakad]

Before the Nakadians sat down, they placed a square of cloth to protect the seats and keep them hygienic. Carmen clasped her hands together and rested them on the table as she looked across to the Caesar.

"We thank you for your welcome and we hope so too. Nakad produces many goods ourselves that we could trade. We are mainly well known for our consumer electronics industry, computers, T.V's, cellphones. Which I'm sure our various companies would be interested in investing in your nation. We also have strong agricultural and mining that we could bring on a trade deal."

[New Roma Republic]

"Ok, I think we can work out a deal. I'm thinking no tariffs, along with guarantees of auto and tech industry imports, for each side, respecitvally."

[Nakad]

Carmen nodded. "That seems fair to me." She looked to Marcus who had remained quiet the entire time, she knew there was only one thing he was interested in. Carmen looked back to the Caesar.

"I have heard rumors that you also wish to establish a military base on one of our islands. Would you be able to elaborate on that? We of course have some concerns, but we are somewhat open to the idea."

[New Roma Republic]

Saturninus smiled as he leaned forward. "It is disturbing how you heard that as only a select few have discussed the possibility, but yes, we have discussed that. The Imperial Armed Forces have bases stretched over the world, in order to have lines of defense against those hostile to us. The location of your islands would be ideal should we incur the wrath of several Latin American nations in an alliance we have been hostile with in the past. The base would be small, but a port and an airbase, along with radar, barracks, armory, and administrative buildings."

[Nakad]

Marcus smiled this time as he leaned forward towards Saturninus. "We have very good intelligence agencies." He then sat back in his chair folding his arms across his chest.

Carmen sighed, she needed to defuse the situation. Marcus liked to make himself the alpha dog in the room, not the best for diplomatic relations.

"Of which information we would be willing to share as allies. We can certainly accommodate a base on one of the smaller outlying islands. Any non-military staff would have comply with our compulsory nudity law however and soldiers going out into our cities for non-military reasons. Would that be acceptable? We would also welcome an embassy in our nation."