Chapter 162

At 0500 I was eating breakfast at my desk with a cup of orange juice and coffee as a chaser. I finished just as kitchen staff brought in fresh coffee and a pitcher of orange juice to put on the table we were going to use.

The Russians were escorted in by the Secret Service and my staff to begin today’s discussions and clear up any questions from yesterday. Yesterday we listed the topics we wanted to discuss.

We were going to take one from the list and beat it to death before moving on to the next one. Yesterday that idea had worked out better than I expected.

One of today’s hot topics was the Treaty of the Arctic that had been tossed around for the last decade. Another was nuclear arms reductions and ballistic submarine limitations.

Another that was not on the list was the Chinese problem on the Russian border. No matter what we did, if there wasn’t a discussion and plan this whole exercise was a waste of time.

The group was smaller this morning - a couple of the Russians had gone to the embassy to converse with their staffs in Moscow.

We started on the Arctic treaty that had been in limbo since the Obama administration. Russia - at the time under Putin - was determined it was entitled to all the possible wealth in the Arctic Circle. After all, they were the largest territory holder in the circle.

At the time Russia was booming, plans for the aircraft carriers were being drawn up and the Council of Ministers and the Parliament had signed off on their construction. Other military expansions were approved; a new stealth fighter and a new large bomber to replace the ancient Bear propeller driven bombers.

New tanks, destroyers, submarines were on the drawing boards. Putin was exercising the power of the Russian military by building and expanding bases and science posts in the polar region. They were ahead of the other nations.

In other areas of the Middle East, Russia was flexing its power by getting involved in Syria and Libya along with trying to mediate peace in the Middle East.

Then it all started falling apart; the carriers exploded, the locust came, the seven year drought. Chernobyl radiation flared up again requiring emergency measures and containment. The oil markets were flooded with oil as more electric vehicles took to the road and solar farms curbed the use of oil and coal.

Temperatures were gradually warming as population grew, scientist had finally admitted the sun was burning hotter and moving closer to earth fueling a new round of end of time revelations. The warmer temperatures killed the high demand for heating in the winter time. Utilities were screaming they weren’t making enough money because of it. The Russian endeavors in the Arctic were slowly abandoned.

We started with the obvious on the treaty, Russia and Canada were the two largest land mass holders followed by Greenland then the United States, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Those seven countries held title to the Arctic Circle.

Always before the UN was involved, demanding countries thousands of miles away reap the benefits of the Arctic wealth and of course the UN should decide who, how much and what the UN was going to keep.

First we decided the UN was out of the picture - that any wealth should be divided among the seven based on the percentage of holdings in the circle regardless of what area anything of value was found.

Another key point was who should be working the circle. Looking at past proposals, we decided that contractors would have to be approved by the majority of the seven nations. Inspectors would be on site at all times.

There would be an emphasis on limiting environmental damage to the circle and restoration of all areas and funding set aside for it.

We ironed out dozens of key stumbling blocks that were there before. The key was Orbatch dropped the claim to all the territory that the bases and science centers had been built on. Dividing the possible wealth based on the percentages eased fears that other countries of the circle would lose out.

A list of what minerals could be sold on the market and what minerals should be kept and divided among the seven would be determined later. Precious metals were a hot commodity in the discussion.

We settled on the final draft. The State Department was going to put our musing in official order and send it to the other five nations. President Orbatch and I would sign it on Thursday with an invitation for them to attend and participate in the historic signing.

At 0800 we took a break. Jenny, Marcy, Vicky, Ching Lee and Lorrie were in the lobby waiting to do the video conference with Thimble Shoals Bank.

The documents that my mates explained was explained again in detail on what and how I needed to proceed and the limitations the bank would allow. They were as concerned about the situation in Asia and Europe as I was. The key to long term financial institutions was world stability.