BaSTO

***A defense organization, set up between the Germanic states of Bavaria and East Germany and the nation of Denmark on the 21.09.2023***

# History

While the idea of a defense organization was first introduced on the 23.08., it wasn't developed any further until the 19.09. when the first draft of the BaSTO treaty was made by ProtogenApollo.

First meeting took place on the 21.09. in the courtyard of Bavaria palace, where before the treaty was signed, the name BaSTO (Baltic Sea Treaty Organization [pronounced based] ) was decided upon. The signing was done silently and not announced anywhere to keep a low profile.

The treaty is currently stored in Bavaria palace's office.

# Policies

The full treaty, unedited:

Article 1

The signatories of this treaty must hereby abide by the document's laws, which are put forth by it. If a country that is a part of this organization, violates these rules, a diplomatic discussion will be set up to eliminate these inconsistencies,hopefully peacefully. If these violations are numerous or not dealt with in a pre-set time preiod, the violator is removed from the organization and its requirement to abide by these laws is nullified, such as is the cooperation and help from the other signatories.

Article 2

As soon as a country signs this treaty, a non-aggression pact is immediately set up between it and other member states. It lasts permanently, or as long as the country is a part of this organization. The non-agression pact includes another clause that there must be a constant open military access between member countries.

Article 3

A country that signs this treaty must be previously approved by all members of the organization and has to be at peace. Territorial integrity is not a prerequisite, however, a country's borders, even the ones that currently do not belong to them,must be clearly defined upon a meeting with the other signatories. If a country is currently in an armed conflict with another country, it is unable to sign this treaty, however, it can still participate in talks with the other signatory countries and if it is deemed necessary, said nations can provide military support to the aspirant country. This includes sending military aid and armed personnel to major cities to guard the infrastructure from hostile attacks. If the aspirant nation is not fighting a defensive war, article 3's final sentences are deemed void and it is unable to interact with the organization in any way.

Article 4

Before being able to sign this treaty, a country must show the abiloty to fend off an invading army, therefore, a review will be done by the current members to see if the aspirant's military force is up to code. The prerequisites for this will be determined in a meeting between all signatories and the reviewee. This check can include, but is not limited to: military infrastructure, logistics connections, arms factories, personal gear, etc. Upon being a member country for a pre-set amount of time,other member countries can help by making the militaty infrastructure between the 2 countries synergize by eg. connecting improved railways. This is not a necessity, but it is heavily encouraged to improve cooperation between member countries.

Article 5

If a member country is attacked in any way that may be interpreted as a violation of its sovereignty, be it eg. an economic blockade, military incursion or shelling. War is consequently declared on all signatory nations by the perpetrator of the violation. This comes into effect upon an emergency meeting, called by the attacked country. Diplomacy is not a possibility, noris it allowed, to have the organization avoid the conflict, as the safety and security of the signatories is a primary concern.Such action will be used as retaliation, as it is deemed necessary to restore order and security in all member sovereign states.

Article 6

Article 5 can be deemed null and void, if during the emergency meeting, it is decided that the damages that might be caused to other cosignatories, outweighes the damages caused to the attacked country. In such case, diplomacy, which will betaken care of by the non-war participant nations, with the violator is necessary to provide a swift end to the conflict.

Article 7

The organization reserves the right to determine what might have been the cause of the conflict on its own. Such decisions will be done with everyone's security in mind, not only counting the member countries. Whether an armed conflict that involves a signatoryis a defensive or an offensive war, is decided in a meeting between the organization's members. Such a decision may be undertaken during the emergency meeting, however, the gatherer of the meeting may choose to waive this and promptly declare it a defensive war,and lay off the decision until a later date. If it is decided that the war is that of aggression, the organization is promptly not involved in this in any way and countries can choose to join the war on their own accord.

Article 8

A provocation for an intervention also includes various attacks and assaults on citizens or leaders of the signatory countries, vehicles, this including, but not limited to boats and trains, and infrastructure. Whether the attack was caused on foreign territory or international lands/waters (which also goes by the calling of "Wilderness") is an unimportant factor and will promptly be ignored, however if the provocateur presents other members of the organizationwith suitable evidence that their sovereignty and safety was threatened by the presence of the before mentioned objects, such an attack can consequently br dismissed and no further talks about it being a provocation may exist.

Article 9

Safety, diplomacy and sovereignty are top priorities and will be kept in mind during various meetings and before important decisions. This right also extends to decisions influencing other states, their security and wellbeing will also be taken into account.

Article 10

All the countries in the organization are treated as equals and there is no sort of concrete leadership. The moment that a nation signs the treaty, it gets to the same level as one that has been a signatory for any amount of time. During the undertaking of any sort of decisions in meetings, every country has it's own vote, which bears equal weight for all, that can't be superseded or vetoed by another member.

Article 11

If there is a loophole or any sort of doubt in the treaty, all questions should not be directed to just any member, but only to the original writer of this treaty. Various interpretations can be dangerous to not just the signatory countries,but to neighbouring nations, so to avoid such violations, any doubt in the treaty should be clarified immediately with the author.

[Signees]

Bavaria\_Bündeslander

ProtogenApollo

Denmark

BluesRains

East Germany

wes00chin

# Treaty's signatories

* Denmark; BluesRaines
* East\_Germany; wes00chin
* Bavaria\_Bundesländer; ProtogenApollo

# Name pronunciation

Since I originally thought that the TEAW discord members would be smart enough to understand how the name of the organization is pronounced simply with the hints that I've provided, I didn't think that adding this to the wiki would be necessary, but yet here we are.

Ready for it? It's quite complex. Start by saying "bass" as in the kind of fish. Then pronounce a hard "t" sound, followed by saying the latter "o" as in "oh". The full pronunciation is "bass-T-oh".

*This page is still a WIP*