6 May 1945
Minister for Foreign Affairs Gabino Conseulos is in Bharat for the beginning of a five day visit to the newly democratic Asian state.
Speaking to reporters at the Karachi Aerodrome, the first stop on the tour, Sr. Conseulos said, "There was a time when Iberia and Bharat were on opposite sides of an intricate alliance system, each concerned about the risk posed by the other to its allies. With the demise of both the AEGIS and SATSUMA alliances, that friction has been alleviated. What remains now is a largely blank slate, upon which we can choose to write a future of our choosing."
The Minister will spend the day touring Karachi, a relatively rare example of a peaceful, modern territorial transfer between regional powers. This will include stops at the blossoming Port of Karachi as well as a textile factory. Subsequently, he will visit Mumbai for a speech to the Bharati Chamber of Commerce. These events are seen as an attempt to gain access to the Bharati economy; though highly protected by tariffs and trade barriers, its four hundred million consumers are seen as a potentially lucrative market by industry in general.
Minister Conseulos will conclude the trip with an extended stop in the capital of Hyderabad, where he will meet with both Prime Minister Sardesei and the Rajaram. Although the Minister and his officials have declined to comment, speculation exists that the Minister will be speaking with his Bharati counterparts about the continued sale of naval armaments to Iberia's primary regional rivals, China and Mexico.
Foreign affairs analyst Dr. Ignacio Montiel, at the University of Cartagena, noted, "There's a long history of India selling surplus warships to Mexico and China, and that arose in no small part because it made sense during the period of tense relations between India's SATSUMA alliance and the AEGIS alliance. Mexican destroyers - and there are a lot of them - reduced Iberia's ability to divert resources into the Pacific in the event of a war. Surplus received by China effectively jump-started their ocean-going fleet, which threatens San Hainando and was at one time a threat to the Netherlands East Indies.
"Yet what we're seeing now is that, absent the alliance system, there's no real benefit to India continuing this practice. I mean, sure, there's the actual cash value of the ships, though India has barely surpassed scrap value in selling to the Mexicans. But there's no direct territorial conflicts between India and Iberia to warrant such a direct and irritating sore. Meanwhile, Chinese aggression against the Philippines and Chosen - in part powered by Indian surplus - has kept the Pacific region in turmoil for several years. So unpredictable are the Chinese at this point that India should be wondering whether its former warships are going to end up being used against them one day."