Confirmation Hearing: MasterJedi (Secretary of External Affairs)

[MasterJedi]

Well I'll just pop in for now and say I'll answer any questions anyone has so shoot away, if ya have any.

[MasterJedi]

Well I'll just pop in for now and say I'll answer any questions anyone has so shoot away, if ya have any.

What are your views on the situation in Zimbabwe?  Should Atlasia intervene, and if so, in what capacity?

I'll get to this question sometime tomorrow, been a little busy today.

[MasterJedi]

What are your views on the situation in Zimbabwe?  Should Atlasia intervene, and if so, in what capacity?

Atlasia should intervene, but not with military force. That would hurt more than help democracy in the country. We already have full sanctions on them which should continue but we should push for more nations to do so as well. We must also use our influence to get the UN and GTO to also apply pressurre on Zimbabwe.

As well as that we also must put pressure on the African Union to at least provide sanctions as well. What would be preferable is a complete embargo on the country by the AU except for food and medical supplies that we should get the AU to provide troops to make sure the people actually get these supplies instead of Mugabe's troops seizing them.

Another thing that I believe would be a good idea is a "Great River" program that would help people who wanted to leave Zimbabwe safely get out of the country along with helping getting them set up for awhile in their new country.

I have a question.

Mr. Moderate: great president, or greatest president?

Great, because I've liked what you've done so far. But of course it hasn't been much yet.

How do you imagine China would react to this?

Besides what we've changed about Taiwan it's pretty much the policy that we've had before and of course they aren't happy about them. With Taiwan I doubt they are very happy either but of course they won't do anything about it. We have just recognized the country as independent, we haven't recognized them as China. They have always made threats about retaking Taiwan but in today's climate they probably never will.

What I can tell you is that they will take it far better, and it won't affect us as much, as what many, including I think you (correct me if I'm wrong) wanted me to do which was put some sanctions, if not complete sanctions against China. That would make relations between our countries really bad besides wreck our economy since we are so closely tied. As well as that I don't believe we should boycott the olympics or the opening ceremonies because it's an athletic event, not political.

[MasterJedi]

Although I fully support the renomination of Master Jedi for the post of Secretary of External Affairs, and will confidently vote Aye when a vote is called, in the mean time I shall ask Mr. Jedi some questions regarding some recent foreign policy matters, and they shall most primarily focus upon Sudan and China.

Mr. Secretary, would you have supported economic sanctions against the Republic of Sudan due to "President" Omar al-Bashir's crimes against humanity and war crimes against his own people, primarily those in the region of Darfur? And would you support any attempt by the Atlasian Government to impose sanctions against the Republic of Sudan?

Mr. Secretary, would you also consider a late boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, even if it does involve just an opening ceremony boycott due to People's Republic of China's support of al-Bashir's Government or due to any other factor?

Thanks Mr. Secretary.

Atlasia already has full sanctions on Sudan and has condemned their actions in Darfur. These sanctions (as well as other's that were implemented during my last term, will stay in effect until the President reviews them).

As for boycotting the opening ceremony, no unless the President wants that changed. I on the other hand don't feel like boycotting it is proper, it's an athletic event, nothing political about it.

How do you imagine China would react to this?

Besides what we've changed about Taiwan it's pretty much the policy that we've had before and of course they aren't happy about them. With Taiwan I doubt they are very happy either but of course they won't do anything about it. We have just recognized the country as independent, we haven't recognized them as China. They have always made threats about retaking Taiwan but in today's climate they probably never will.

What I can tell you is that they will take it far better, and it won't affect us as much, as what many, including I think you (correct me if I'm wrong) wanted me to do which was put some sanctions, if not complete sanctions against China. That would make relations between our countries really bad besides wreck our economy since we are so closely tied. As well as that I don't believe we should boycott the olympics or the opening ceremonies because it's an athletic event, not political.

Just FTR, it's not necessarily that I wanted sanctions on China, but that I wanted consistency with the application of sanctions. It seems the reason sanctions were not placed on China was that it would hurt ourselves, but nonetheless we saw fit to put sanctions on countries with much lesser human rights violations, simply because that wouldn't hurt us so much.

(I also think there's no telling what China would do if such declarations about Tibet and Taiwan were made in RL, particularly recognising Taiwanese independence. I don't think there's any telling how China would react, but I would expect something very dramatic.)

I understand where you're coming from but there are differences between wanting and reality. I would love to have full sanctions on China but all that would do is more harm than good as we all know. I won't even go beyond crippling our economy because that would screw us all.

Yes, that's IRL where here we have no GM and not many people seem to care about foreign affairs that much because of it. One thing that will help this though is what the President wants me to do once I get confirmed which is finally, with the people's help, solving how Atlasia and the US fit into the world we have created.

[MasterJedi]

Thanks for the confirmation, and the first thing I shall start with, beginning tomorrow, is to get Atlasia to discuss and then vote on the position of Atlasia/the US in our world.