I would like to thank our our hosts for organising this conference and having taken such good care of us since we have arrived.
Please allow me to set out what, from our point of view, is the fundamental misunderstanding with which this situation has been approached, by which I refer to the unwarranted assumption that Malivia's territorial claims to sovereignty represent an intention to seize control of those territories through force.
Malivia's territorial claims over Narikaton-Darnussia, Hobrazia, Selucia and Keymon have been in place since
4770, about 143 years, whilst her territorial claim over Selucia has been in place since
4532, about 381 years. During all of this time, Malivia has
never sought to seize these territories by force or behaved aggressively in any way. There have been little incidents and misunderstandings, and there have been bellicose over-reactions from various countries, but the conduct of our country has been impeccable throughout.
Malivia has never seen the territorial claims as an obstacle to positive and constructive relationships with the governments of the territories we have claims on. To the contrary, at every turn, Malivia has sought to deepen relations and to calm the irrational fears which have popped up from time to time.
My government does recognise that for our immediate neighbours and some others in the international community, the existence of the claims represents a serious obstacle. For this reason, we have taken considerable political risks in trying to explore options whereby we could consider dropping the claims. Please appreciate, however, that Malivia is a free society and a lively democracy, and that in order for us to persuade the Malivian people to accept such a compromise, we would need to be able to gain certain guarantees in return.
At the
Hugamest Conference, Malivia set out just such a compromise, which would involve Malivia dropping the claims in return for guarantees that its neighbours would allow a genuinely free discussion about the issue of unification and would agree to facilitate unification in the event that became the will of their population. I am providing a copy of the proposal (OOC: see text in quote box further below).
Malivia is prepared to offer the terms of the Hugamest Proposal to any of our neighbours who are prepared to accept it. If Narikaton-Darnussia wants to sign up to that here and now, we are ready to do that. We are also ready to listen to any counter-proposals.
It may be the case Narikaton-Darnussia does not feel able to come to an agreement along these lines. If this is so, then it is unlikely we could look in to doing anything about the territorial claims at this time, but it would still very much be the case that there are matters our two governments can constructively discuss together. I suggest this should begin with a peace treaty, whereby each government promises not to attack the other first. This could be followed up by co-operation on issues of cross-border security, tackling international crime and terrorism, and economic co-operation.