>: UMC DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE

[Reeves]

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☠ Signal source: Free Republic relay, Liberty
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Sender: Adjutant O. Bancroft
Recipient: Ambassador Setsuna Kobayashi, Utsunomiya Commonwealth
Subject: Re: 1st Annual Utsunomiya Grand Sirius Cultural Festival

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Ambassador Kobayashi. Please extend my sincere thanks to the Head of State for the invitation. It was not expected, and that makes it all the more welcome.

In fact, I think a cultural festival is, in some ways, a better first step than a formal state visit. There's less ceremony to navigate and more room for the kind of conversation that actually tells you something about the people you're dealing with. The Commander and I both think so.

The LFR will attend, and we intend to contribute. What we'd like to bring, if you'll permit us the latitude, is something that reflects the actual breadth of what the Xeno Alliance represents, because it tends to surprise people. The movement is considerably more diverse than the name suggests. Each settlement, each base, each community within Liberty and beyond has developed its own distinct character over time, some of those cultures spanning centuries in their own right, shaped by entirely different circumstances, histories and people. They don't look much alike when you put them side by side. We'll do our best to bring a slice of that, something representative from each, so that what people see isn't a single flag but the full range of what's living underneath it. The specifics we can coordinate through this channel as the date approaches.

The arrangement with Riposte Defense is also noted and appreciated. Whoever your Head of State had the foresight to bring in a neutral security concern rather than leave the matter to any one faction's discretion, that was the right call.

We'll be there!

"There is hope under the White Star."
Adjutant Oscar "Knight of Cups" Bancroft

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