Rebirth of England.

Chapter 768 Peace Talks and Rescue

On September 9, a consultation meeting on resolving the conflicts in Kolo and Benin regions was held in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

In addition to the presidents and delegations of the conflicting parties Kolo and Benin, this meeting was also attended by relevant envoys from the AU Council, the Economic Community of West African States, France, Britain and China.

President Jammeh Bongo of Kolo put forward several demands for resolving the conflict with Benin.

This includes Benin must apologize for allowing the harassment in Kolo; strictly control domestic militants from entering Kolo to carry out attacks; compensate Kolo for the losses caused by this and publish the results of the investigation into the incident.

Of course, Benin was not to be outdone. They strongly condemned the Kolo military forces for entering Benin and carrying out operations, believing that this seriously violated Benin's sovereignty, caused casualties to its civilians, and destroyed some of its facilities...

As things have developed to this point, on the surface each side seems to be right, but in fact, everyone knows very well what is going on.

Moreover, Kolo is not afraid of the conflict continuing. Kolo’s intelligence agency and Kolo Corps even have plans to provide weapons assistance to small anti-government armed forces, or “terrorists”, located in northern Benin near the border with Burkina Faso and Niger…

After entering the waters of Benin to carry out the attack, the two frigates of the Kolo Corps, as well as some aircraft and land forces, also conducted a three-day joint exercise in the area near Benin...

Well, it's not a signal of threat, but a real preparation to familiarize ourselves with some tactics of joint operations.

This made Benin very nervous. After all, although their army had all the necessary equipment, such as light tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and so on, their strength on the sea was dwarfed by that of the Kolo Legion.

Moreover, most of the equipment of the Benin Army comes from some "outdated" equipment from France and China, which are very old. Regardless of whether the other party will sell the more advanced ones, the key is that Benin cannot afford them.

As for the equipment of the Kolo Corps, most of it was standard equipment of the British and American coalition forces that was directly transported back from the battlefield in Iraq. The generation gap between the two sides was very obvious...

Since Benin chose to participate in the peace talks, it also means that they understand that if a more intense conflict really breaks out, they have no guarantee of winning - and they are not stupid. Helping the French do something may gain them some benefits, but it will not get them involved.

Therefore, the final outcome of the negotiations will definitely not be determined by who has the loudest voice, who is unreasonable, or who gets the benefit.

It still depends on their respective strengths as support...

Finally, three days later, the Kobe Abuja Agreement was signed by Kolo and Benin under the coordination of all parties. The content of the agreement is...

It can be said that it was beyond many people's expectations.

According to this agreement, first of all, Benin is willing to reach a consensus with Kolo on military coordination and cooperation, and the two sides will establish relevant mechanisms, jointly enforce the law, and maintain the safety of shipping routes in the Gulf of Guinea.

Benin and Kolo will then conduct reciprocal negotiations on finance and trade to initially establish a smooth common financial and trade market.

……

It can be said that if you don’t know that the conflict has just broken out between the two sides, just looking at the content of this agreement, you would think that Benin and Kolo are close partner countries...

Therefore, both President Jammeh Bongo of Kolo and Benin can be said to be mature "politicians" with flexible postures. It is obvious that Kolo finally gave up the obvious benefits - such as asking Benin to apologize and compensate.

Instead, it gained more tangible benefits, which enabled Benin to open up its financial and trade markets to Kolo on a larger scale.

Of course, in name, the two sides have a mutually beneficial relationship, but in essence, given the financial and trade strength of both sides, this result is definitely the most beneficial to Kolo. Kolo financial institutions and companies, including the United Bank for Africa, will be able to conduct business in Benin more conveniently.

Think about it, who is the one who shouts the loudest about "free trade"? It must not be the country with a poor manufacturing industry...

As for Benin, they are not stupid. After this incident, although they may be able to gain a little benefit from the French, the losses caused by the interruption of trade and other cooperation with Colo are far greater than what they gain.

Therefore, after Chloe gave them a way out, they had to change their attitude quickly.

Do we really go to war just because of our emotions? What good is that? We may not win even if we fight...

……

At the same time, Europe's sovereign debt crisis is also spreading.

"It is said that the situation in Ireland is not ideal either. Their finance minister has already requested a bailout from the European Central Bank during a meeting in Brussels..."

On the phone, Daisy told Barron the latest news.

"It is said that in order to prevent the crisis from spreading further to Spain, Hungary and other countries, the European Central Bank is also discussing with Ireland about providing aid to them. However, after some of the news was passed back to Ireland, some people were very dissatisfied with the 6% loan interest rate required by the European Central Bank. They thought the interest rate was too high and called it 'usury'..."

So far, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and a considerable number of EU member states have provided the first round of assistance to Greece, which was the first to experience the sovereign debt crisis. According to their requirements, Greece must achieve the first-stage goals they require before considering the next round of assistance...

It was at this time that Ireland also said that it could not hold on any longer...

In fact, as early as when Iceland's debt crisis broke out after the subprime mortgage crisis, Ireland had already said it could not hold on...

However, Europe did not take any further rescue actions at that time - perhaps after seeing Greece successfully rescued, they did not want to work hard on their own...

Although the actions of the European Central Bank have shown that in order to prevent the collapse of the euro, they will still provide assistance to some countries in debt crisis.

But like Greece, these aids will definitely have corresponding conditions and requirements, such as requiring their countries to reduce spending and make their finances healthy. In addition, these aids will not be free or low-interest loans, but will be given at relatively normal interest rates.

For example, this time they insisted that even if it was a bailout, the interest rate on loans to Ireland would not be lower than 6%...

From this we can see that the negotiations between Ireland and the European Central Bank on bailout are unlikely to be concluded in the short term.

(End of this chapter)