Monsilva in ACES

Zhong Guowei, Foreign Affairs Minister signing the accession agreement in 2014.

The Monsilvan Republic became a member of the Global ACES program in 2014, after reaching an agreement with the government Baltanla for both nations to join the program at the same time. Along with being an agreement between the two country to better their relations with the nations of Central Ecros, Monsilva's motives were also aligned with worsening relations with neighboring Zloveshchiy over Akvatika Island. Monsilva's accession is seen as one of the most successful achievements during the government of Lee Su. Monsilva was the third nation to join the program, with Tumland being the previous in 2007.

Support within Monsilva for the country being in the program has remained positive, however the country often rejects any significant military involvement with the program. Xu Yan, Monsilvan prime minister from 2016 to 2023, explained that Monsilva 'has no reason to be involved in military operations taking place on the other side of the planet', but he also said that the country is 'one hundred percent in support of its allies and Monsilva will always assist them when they are in need of it'.

History

At the forefront of the move of Monsilva towards joining the Global ACES program was Zhong Guowei, the Monsilvan Minister for Foreign Affairs. Zhong had concerns about the worsening relations with Zloveshchiy, and had discussed with the Cabinet of Monsilva, stating that 'Monsilva needs as many allies as it can get'. In September 2014, Zhong approached the foreign affairs minister of Baltanla, who had already expressed Baltanla's interest in the Global program, and offered for both nations to join the program at the same time. They accepted and planned to join Global ACES in December of that year. Zhong Guowei also lead many of the debates for joining the program. Zhong's main argument against the many concerns within the assembly about Monsilva's neutrality after joining the Global ACES program was "we're not joining the program to intervene in a war-torn and distant land where the outcome has the same number of benefits as it does drawbacks, we're joining it to help Monsilva and to help those that would help us".

In late November 2014, the ACES Accession Act 2014 was proposed to the Legislative Assembly. It was passed overwhelmingly, with the majority of the governing party, the Freedom and Democracy Party, and the largest opposition, the Reformed National Party were for the Act, while the third-largest party, the Liberal Party was slightly more skeptical. Monsilva joined on 22 December 2014, and Baltanla ended up joining the program two days later.

When Xu Yan won the 2016 federal election, returning the Reformed National Party to the premiership after 20 years, the topics of Akvatika Island and Monsilva's position in the Global ACES program became a much greater topic of discussion. Xu and his party are huge supporters of the program and have stated that they intend to use it to gain closer relations with Central Ecros. A big development in Monsilva's ties with ACES was the RSSI Act 2018, passed in the Legislative Assembly which essentially added limited representation of Shaoyu (Akvatika) Island into the Legislative Assembly. After the successful OU military intervention in Akvatika in September 2023, Shaoyu was admitted as Monsilva's fifteenth state in January 2024.

Recent and future events

In 2023, the topic of Monsilva in Global ACES had been one of many topics for discussion before the 2023 federal election. According to polls conducted in February, 31% of respondents believed Monsilva should remain in the program for the foreseeable future, 25% said Monsilva should remain in the program until the Shaoyu Crisis is over, 18% said Monsilva should head towards leaving the program as soon as possible and 26% said they're not sure. Prime Minister Lin Yao-tang has implemented Monsilva's continued status in the alliance as a part of his policies as prime minister, which is the first time any prime minister has done so since Monsilva joined in 2014.