First Councillor Valerio signaled his intent to speak, in his condition as representative from one of the three countries that had convened the meeting. He leaned forward, looking sideways to acknowledge all leaders, and began to speak.
"My fellow leaders, I cannot think of a better time for us to meet. It is easy to talk of alliances and economic development when the world is at peace, when the sole challenge is how to continue growing our economies. It is much more difficult to talk about alliances when the stakes are high, when the world is without coherent leadership, when joining might cause others to resent us. I stand here in representation of Sartoria because my government believes that our nations joined together can provide the kind of quality leadership that the world needs, that our diplomatic and economic resources can be used to improve the lives of our various peoples and those of other nations in need."
He gently gestured at the window. "Our world is in need of leadership. We have refugee crises in the Sol Federation and Kauzka. We have dangerous ideologies and leaders appearing, most prominently Edward Yutan, and the safety of our nations depends on our ability to be an effective alternative to the authoritarian ways of Yutan. We must provide an alternative that compromises democratic governance, safe peoples and free trade."
"Let us not ignore though the challenges that many nations in this very room are facing." he said, now making a circular gesture around the table "Many nations are in need of assistance in developing their own industries, consolidating the victories in years recent or enforcing the rule of law so they can begin the road towards economic and social development. Our alliance must have those needs in mind, and focus on addressing them, on helping each other through the establishment of free trade areas, the exchange of technological knowledge, the establishment of networks for the exchange of the items necessary for the development of all nations in this room and the setting of clear and measurable goals for that development, so that after a certain time we can look back and asses how well our plan has been implemente and much how there is left for us to do."
"I hope you will join me in pursuing these goals, and I look forward to holding a productive meeting in the course of the next few days."