Well, it appears that I’m the straggler here, so I apologize once again to the Assembly for my delay.
At this point, I think the Assembly knows me fairly well. I’ve been TSP’s Minister of Foreign Affairs since November, and I’m excited to continue for another term.
If the past six months in this role have taught me anything, it’s that almost everything in FA and NSGP takes longer to accomplish than you think it will. Indeed, corresponding with our foreign allies and partners and managing diplomatic situations as the emerge consumes a substantial portion of any MoFA’s time. So I’ve kept my affirmative agenda focused and concise, in the hopes that I will be able to deliver on it in the three short months of a PM term.
Continue to Build the Ambassador Corps and Develop our FA Bench
Since the ambassador program re-launched, it’s grown gradually but steadily and now covers most of our key allies and partners. You will see more updates from me on that front later this evening, as I’ll be making some adjustments and additions to our team.
That said, things still aren’t quite where I want them to go, for a few reasons. First, most of our ambassadors are long-time members of TSP. To be clear, I have nothing against TSP veterans (indeed, I’m almost one myself!). But one of my goals for the ambassador program is to serve as a pathway to engagement for new members, a way for folks who are interested in FA to begin building their diplomatic chops. Some of this evening’s appointments will be addressed to this goal, but I hope to continue building out the team with new members throughout the term. Second, I candidly have not taken sufficient time to engage with the ambassador corps on a 1:1 or group level. That’s on me, and it’s something I pledge to prioritize in the coming term. As implied by the title of this section, one of my goals for the ambassador corps is for it to serve as a training ground for our future FA bench. It’s hard for it to play that role when the MoFA isn’t sufficiently engaged with individual ambassadors.
Strengthen Foreign Ties
We’ve made notable strides in deepening our foreign partnerships over the last few terms. I’m particularly proud to have signed the Covenant of Swans and Stars, a mutual defense treaty with our friends from Starlight & Horizon.
In the coming term, I look forward to deepening our relationships with long-time friends and forming new connections with regions with which our diplomatic outreach may have been more limited in the past. This could be through cultural events, WA collaboration, military engagement, or some combination of the above. For example, it has been nearly two years since TSP conducted a state visit with a foreign partner. With a new Delegate in place, now strikes me as the right time to consider one or more such visits.
Explore a New Security Council Treaty
The Partnership for Sovereignty, a multilateral Security Council voting bloc of which TSP was a member, was recently dissolved by unanimous vote. While it is never a happy event to see one of our longstanding treaties be repealed, it may present new opportunities. The PfS’s effectiveness had been limited for some time due to a combination of bureaucratic procedures, inactive members, and ideological differences over SC voting approach. The government intends to explore the possibility of creating a new defender-aligned SC voting bloc to replace the PfS, one that would address some of the underlying issues that led to the PfS’s dissolution. I have no further details on this effort at present, but I will keep the Assembly updated accordingly.
Prepare for Upcoming GA Changes
Come July, the GA will undergo a significant transformation. While it is challenging to anticipate exactly how the GA landscape will develop post-reset and how those developments will impact our foreign affairs, we do know that we will have a number of important decisions to make once the gameside changes are in place. Those decisions include, for example, the extent to which TSP will be involved in Secretariat elections and, to the extent we are formally involved, which candidate we would support for the Secretariat. I look forward to discussing these matters in greater depth with the Assembly over the coming months so that we can be as prepared as possible when these changes are implemented.
I stand ready to answer the Assembly’s questions.