Chapter 1358 - Fruits of Victory
Chapter 1358: Fruits of Victory
Under both domestic and international pressure, the Nippon-UA Security Treaty eventually collapsed. Based on the agreement signed by Nippon, Xin, and Celestial Trade, Celestial Trade Marines boarded large transport planes and arrived at the Yoto Military Base. In addition to the two thousand soldiers, twenty Aurora-20s and fifty Tiger II tanks also landed in Nippon. Nominally, they were leased to the Nippon Defense Force, but in fact, the move was to supervise the withdrawal of UA troops from Nippon.
The negotiation was expected to be a tug of war.
Jiang Chen met Hill at the New Otani Hotel.
The last time they met was about a year ago.
When the two countries’ navies had a showdown in the Western Pacific, Jiang Chen had a brief video call with her. The two sides almost put the nuclear button on the negotiating table. Fortunately, all the nuclear missiles stayed inside the silo. Celestial Trade succeeded in defending their border, and the UA was forced to choose rationality. It was precisely because the negotiation that day ended peacefully that people all over the world could sit in front of the TV and watch this world-class sports event today…
But these were events that happened in the past.
Although only a year had passed, Jiang Chen could still clearly feel that she aged much more compared to the year before. Whether it was the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes or the white hair near her ears, it was visible that the last few months of her term had not been pleasant.
“These military installations were rebuilt by the UA military and used for nearly a century. We cannot unilaterally end the security treaty because of your agreement with Nippon. I hope you can carefully consider your decision today. The end to the Nippon-UA Security Treaty will make the entire Asia-Pacific region strategically unbalanced, which will definitely not be in your national interest,” Hill said seriously as she stared into the eyes of Prime Minister of Nippon.
The Prime Minister looked helpless and eyed Jiang Chen who sat on the other side.
“The first problem can be solved easily. Pack it up and take what you can take away. If you can’t take it away, blow it up or sell it to us at a discount, we’ll take everything.” Jiang Chen, who sat on the sofa, gently tapped the armrest as he responded with a pleasant expression, “As for the second issue, why does the strategic balance in Asia matter to you? You should pay attention to your allies down south, that’s your front garden.”
When Hill heard Jiang Chen’s mention of South America, anger burned in her chest. However, she was the president of a country after all and thus did not respond to the provocation in Jiang Chen’s words, and she did not even show any negative emotions on her face. Rather, she continued calmly.
“500 billion dollars, this is our bottom line.”
“How about this, we won’t buy it anymore.” Jiang Chen sighed, “Where do you want to move these military bases? As long as they are on Earth, we will build one for you as they were for free.”
500 billion dollars?
Fool! Your national defense expenditure for the whole year is not this number, right?
This money can build another space elevator, let alone 88 military bases!
The two sides were deeply divided over the compensation issue. Jiang Chen’s bottom line was 60 billion Xin New dollars, with each base compensated at an average price of 700 million. However, Hill insisted on the 500 billion figure and demanded that the settlement be settled in dollars.
Jiang Chen did not expect to be able to reach an agreement on the first day. After a heated round of negotiation, the two sides finally chose to put aside the issue for the time being and start the next topic of the time for withdrawal.
“The withdrawal time is too short. One year is not enough. We can reduce the number of military bases from eighty-eight to ten in ten years, and withdraw all soldiers stationed in Nippon in the next two years.”
“Ten years?” Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head, and put up one finger, “At most one year. If you don’t have enough planes, we can reimburse your tickets for free.”
“Not only people need to be withdrawn, but also weapons and equipment. Ten years is not an exaggeration. It took us nearly a century to deploy these weapons.” Kerry, who was next to Hill, quibbled.
“Your personnel can be evacuated in batches. You can transport your weapons and equipment to South Korea first, and then slowly drag them home. In other words, if you don’t have enough transport capacity, you can come to us. Celestial Trade is not only a military contractor, but we are also in the shipping business.” With his fingers crossed and placed above his one knee, Jiang Chen said with a smile as he responded to Kerry who sat across from him.
From the very beginning, he had predicted that this negotiation would be a tug of war.
Regardless of the compensation for the relocation or the time of withdrawal, the divides between Celestial Trade, Nippon, and the UA were huge.
Nippon proposed that the Yokosuka Military Base must be relocated immediately. However, the UA’s opinion was that the Yokosuka Military Base, as the headquarters of the UA Military in Nippon, should be the last to go. Celestial Trade’s requirement was that regardless of when the Yokosuka Base would be relocated, the Seventh Fleet deployed in Nippon must be withdrawn immediately.
After a week of negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement on troop withdrawal.
Celestial Trade would pay 10 billion Xin New dollars to the UA in one lump sum payment, and Nippon would pay 60 billion New Xin dollars to the UA over four years. The withdrawal plan would officially commence in March next year, which would be the first month after the end of Hill’s term.
Jiang Chen did not raise too many concerns for the withdrawal plan proposed by Hill, but he emphasized that it must be completed within a year, that is, by March 2022. Although this opponent had caused him a lot of trouble, in general, she was still a respectable opponent. Since it was already an unlucky run for her, there was no need to destroy her remaining dignity.
The UA made considerable concessions in terms of the amount of compensation and the time for withdrawal. In exchange, Jiang Chen handed over 10,000 NATO Coalition Force and a ceasefire agreement.
In a sense, Hill’s astronomical demand was aimed at these two points.
In addition, the Seventh Fleet was scheduled to depart for Guam at the end of this month, accompanied by two thousand Marines…
In the reception room of the New Otani Hotel, the representatives of the three parties signed their own names on three identical agreements.
After Jiang Chen collected the agreement, he was about to leave with his loot. However, Kerry blocked his way and stared right at him.
“Celestial Trade shouldn’t have existed from the beginning. You are just troublemakers. If you still have a little conscience, you should immediately dissolve your stupid company,” Kerry said one word at a time.
“Dissolve? Then what?” Jiang Chen sneered, “Depend on you to resist the colonial ship from Gliese 581? Accept the reality, we can do better than you. And with all due respect, you are the troublemakers, our existence just created trouble for you to create trouble.”
Kerry was slightly taken aback.
Jiang Chen said the last sentence in Mandarin. For a while, he didn’t understand the subject-verb-object relationship. When he realized what Jiang Chen had meant, his eyebrows suddenly raised, but when he was about to rebuttal, Jiang Chen was already long gone.