To: Kjell Roll Elgsaas,
President of the Republic of Armatirion
Armatirion
From: Robert Talin,
Minister for Diplomatic Relations,
The United Democratic Republic of Utania.

November 6th, 300 AP.

On behalf of President Okarvits of Utania, I bring you greetings. This long awaited initial communication between our two great nations we hope will introduce an era of trust and mutual respect.

I wish to address some of the issues raised by your communication yesterday regarding the state of the I'ana Archipelago, and hopefully convey the fears of a certain segment of our population with integrity.

On August 17th, 300 AP, a flotilla of warships and a dozen fighter jets escorted two troop ships to the I'ana archipelago with the express purpose of occupying and militarising the islands. However, the story does not begin there. For several weeks before, the Director of the UNVCOCN "Point South" Mission, Gordon Davidz, had entertained the notion of handing the archipelago to the Ptica Park administration. He was under pressure from environmentalist groups, particularly Peacegreen, to not surrender the islands to Utania as fears were that Utania would commence commercial mining of the tiny islands, destroying the habitat of several animals, but also of the 1500 inhabitants. The islands are known to be mineral rich. It was the belief of the previous government, that the UNV politician was attempting to boost his "green" credentials, and improve his advancement opportunities within the UNV.

Unfortunately, he was unaware of the depth of feeling toward the islands by the Utanian people. As you may well know, for over one thousand years the islands have been an integral component of Utania, either as part of the "Horn of Olives" province under the Guwimith totalitarian regime, or as an integral colony of the Savaj (Utanian) Empire of the 7th to final centuries B.P. Utania has, and will always, regard the islands as part of Utania. The inhabitants are Utani-Ptican in origin, and we feel it is our obligation to retain not only our link to the past, but to offer economic support to the people there, should they require it.

Included within this was a fear that the UNV's reluctance to make the islands part of Utania again was mostly due to their being already occupied by forces of Armatirion, or another regional power. The UNV, having no stomach for a fight over such insignificant islands, determined to simply surrender them to the Armatirion-administered Ptica Park authority, effectively "killing two birds with one stone". The islands in foreign hands, represent a significant threat to Utania's southern shore, were they used as a base for invasion, another fear held by the previous administration, somewhat shared by this one.

With protests to the UNV yielding only a preliminary discussion meeting, a process in which Mr Davidz apparently had little interest, President Hope determined that strong action was required. He mobilised intelligence and the armed forces to determine the likely strength of an occupation force, then immediately dispatched a "reoccupation" force. The force met with no resistance, proving baseless the fears of Armatirion in this regard.

We are not of the impression that Ptica is populated, for it is well-known that it is devoid of human life, but a rich garden for all other forms of Vexillium's life. However, the fears of many within our population, having little or no understanding of the Armatirion Republic, that the Ptica Park is a militarised park, having bases full of invasion-minded troops.

These are views not shared by all Utanians, neither by this administration. We feel that the greatest fear behind the paranoia toward Armatirion is fear of the unknown. For most of the life of "Utania the emerging state", Armatirion has been behind the cloud of the unknown. Armatirion is also a professed "socialist" republic, an "enemy of capitalist, free-thinking states such as Utania", as one of our opposition MP's has been quoted.

President Okarvits is adamant that no great military occupation of the islands shall be permitted; thus the strength of the autonomy granted to the islands. Small scale naval bases will continue, as they did under the Guwimith regime, otherwise the islanders will be left to manage their own affairs.

I can assure you that there is no ulterior motive for the occupation, or for the subsequent autonomy, or retention of small bases on two of the islands. As already stated, there is fear of Armatirion's motives by some Utanians, not shared by this administration.

We feel that the only remedy for these fears is knowledge and understanding, and the mutual respect that comes with that.

Peace be with you.

Robert Talin,
Director of Diplomatic Relations,
Office of the President,
UDR of Utania.

PS; Utanians are not related to the Guwimithian people that once ruled over us. We are a distinct people group seeking to establish ourselves after 200+ years of the oppression of the regime that ruled out of Guwimith.