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South Pacific Independent News Network · 10-11-2021, 10:21 PM

OCT. 2021 CABINET ELECTION
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Senior Editor James Halpert sat down with all candidates for Minister of Foreign Affairs to know more about them, their journey in the South Pacific and their ideas for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Roavin

We are back with our October 2021 discussion series. This time we have Roavin, candidate for Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Thank you for hosting! I'm excited for this discussion.

It’s good to have you here. Thank you for agreeing to participate in this discussion series. I suppose the first question is what drove you to run this time around?

I set out a vision for how ambassadorship in the South Pacific can work last February, and while we made some progress in that area, I feel that a lot of additional work is needed to get there. Who better to do that than the person proposing it in the first place?
Furthermore, just on a personal level, I thoroughly enjoyed this Cabinet job more than any other I had held so far (and I've done them all), and while RL prevented me from responsibly running again in the summer, that's less of a concern now.

I see from your campaign that you focus on the ambassadorship. At a high level, are there other areas where you think work need to be done?

Not that much, actually! Overall, I think the general direction and place we have in the interregional sphere is quite good. There are a few things worth addressing, though (and I touched upon them), those being a new meta in NationStates coming from the proposed addition of Frontiers and Strongholds, as well as just generally reaching out and seeking contact with allies and otherwise associated regions that we haven' talked to in some time. In terms of recruitment, we have the unified application system now, which as far as I can tell works a charm. (edited)

Let’s start with ambassadors then. One thing that stood out to me was the idea of sharing information gained through them to the region, for example by posting on the wiki. How would that work?

So, there are two parts to this.
One is static information about another region, the kind of thing one can read in an encyclopedia. A wiki is a perfect place for that kind of information, and in my previous term we got started on doing some of that. For example, you can take a look at the fantastic page about our ally UDS: Linkhttps://wiki.tspforums.xyz/wiki/The_Union_of_Democratic_States
Second is transient information, things about current events and such. During my last term, we established a space in the ministry forum where ambassadors can post news-worthy items (such as election results or treaty announcements) from their assigned regions, but we never did anything with them. This past term, Minister Jay made regular digests of those updates for all South Pacificans to read, and I intend to continue that practice.

You also mention in your campaign that you plan to confer with other regions about the coming changes (Frontiers/Strongholds) to see how our interests align. What do you believe our interests are concerning this change?

Well, it certainly will affect us in some fashion. Right now, we draw 20% of newly spawned nations, and with the proposed changes, that would be halved. Eventually, that will cut into our WA numbers, meaning that we won't have as much influence in the World Assembly anymore as we do right now. That, in turn, has foreign policy implications in those areas where our power in the World Assembly matters, particularly with respect to PfS.
But what our specific interests in this regard are is yet to be defined. It's not something I can (or would want to) define unilaterally, and it will certainly depend not just on us but also on our allies (particularly those that are in PfS with us); all of this is complicated by Frontiers/Strongholds being such a large change to the core game, which means that what the meta ends up being will evolve quickly and be hard to predict.

Do you have any thoughts on the bill currently before the Assembly to have ambassadors promote SPIT in their host regions?

Even if the bill doesn't pass, if any ambassador refuses to do so, they will be fired immediately.

That is so encouraging to hear.
Before we wrap things up, would you like to bring up anything else?

Fish.

I fully agree with that.
Thank you again for participating! I encourage all voters to check out Roavin's campaign campaign campaign and them questions there so that you can cast an informed vote.

And thank you again for hosting!

The South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) is not affiliated with the Government of the South Pacific and any opinions expressed in its publications are those of its authors unless otherwise stated.