Han Sujie and Meng Jiarong, as well as another colleague named Hong Hai, including the specially appointed legal counsel Miel, arrived at the hotel on time at half past eight, but it was not until half past nine that Total's shuttle bus arrived late.

Before coming to France, all of them not only had to familiarize themselves with the company's regulations, but also received an explanation of French business etiquette. This information not only includes the etiquette requirements of the general French, but also discloses in detail the preferences of the two managers Albert and Edmund, who led the negotiations.

Needless to say, you have to wear the best clothes for meetings, you have to change the outcome of the negotiations, and you don't want to work for holidays. Albert and Edmund, who were in charge of the negotiation this time, were both people who attached more importance to the concept of time, so why did the reception vehicle sent arrive half an hour late?

Even if the French generally don't pay much attention to the concept of time, what happened to Albert and Edmund makes people a little confused, which also casts a shadow on everyone's hearts.

Minister Xue's face was also a little ugly, and after getting in the car, he said to Chen Mo: "Xiao Chen, make a note of the other party's lateness, if the negotiation process is not smooth, you can take the time to send this news back to China, and let them investigate whether there are any other accidents on the Angolan side." Xiao Han, you have been in France for a long time, and the information channels are also smoother, so don't all go with us today, you can also arrange a person to re-understand the cooperation we are going to talk about today. ”

Han Sujie nodded and said to Hong Hai: "Xiao Hong, don't follow us today, go back to the office to find out if there have been any changes in Total." ”

This kind of large-scale cooperation with them involves more than hundreds of millions of dollars in contract assets, so any surprise in the negotiation, one step back, the amount involved is astronomical. Under such pressure, it is necessary to be careful and careful, and do not expect to be prepared for a rainy day every time, but it is necessary to be well prepared.

The car arrived downstairs at Total and was greeted by Albert and Edmund at the gate. Albert is a stout old man with gray hair, and Edmund is a handsome middle-aged uncle. They are all wearing hand-made suits, in contrast, Chen Mo and his group are all mass-produced suits, and the grade is not a little worse.

Although they were all smiling, they apologized as soon as they opened their mouths, saying that it was due to the negligence of the logistics department that the vehicle was not arranged to meet the time. But Chen Mo felt that if this was the case, Total would not have developed to such a big size.

However, he didn't have time to think about anything else now, because his job was to act as Minister Xue's translator. He leaned close to Minister Xue's left-hand side, slightly half a body behind, and translated the other party's words to Minister Xue one by one.

As for Han Sujie, who is more familiar with French, she is responsible for the reception, introduction, and communication with each other, which can be said to be the busiest one. Meng Jiarong is also a translator, but she is a girl, and it is not good for her to be too close to Minister Xue, so she specially translates to several other colleagues who do not understand French.

Minister Xue listened to the other party's explanation, showed a tolerant smile, stepped forward, and shook hands with the other party cordially. "Everything is difficult at the beginning, from the intention of our two sides to cooperate, to the establishment of the project, to today's formal entry into substantive negotiations, it has been a year and a half. In contrast, being half an hour late today is a negligible amount of time for both of us. ”

The difficulty at the beginning of everything almost stumped Chen Mo, and the other party's translator was also wording, thinking about how to translate this sentence. Seeing that the other party didn't speak, Chen Mo opened his mouth and said: "We have a proverb in China, which says that everything is the most difficult at the beginning, and when things are on the right track, it will become smoother and smoother........................"

After translating Minister Xue's words, the other party laughed, turned sideways, made a way, and invited everyone into the building. Han Sujie and one of the other party's reception staff took the lead and guided everyone into a reception room.

Albert walked side by side with Minister Xue, and it was rare that he actually spoke English, which is a rare phenomenon in France. Minister Xue's English is very fluent, so there is no problem communicating with him at all, so there is no need to follow the trend at this time.

Meng Jiarong leaned in and whispered: "Minister Xue may be angry, forgetting for a moment that proverbs and idioms are generally not allowed to be spoken on such occasions. You've just translated it very well, but remember that the meaning of the word is more important than the word itself, no matter what time it is. ”

Chen Mo also said in a low voice: "Thank you, Sister Meng." ”

However, after entering the conference room and taking down the two sides at the oval negotiating table, Albert switched back to French.

Although there were not many people, except for the members of the negotiation team, Chen Mo did not sit at the table, but sat behind Minister Xue. On the contrary, since Meng Jiarong was arranged into the negotiation team, she could still sit at the table.

Because according to the distribution of work, including Minister Xue, he is not a member of the negotiation team, and he, like Albert, belongs to the leader. However, Albert is the general manager of Total, but Minister Xue is only the person in charge in the early stage, and when the contract is negotiated and signed, he is not enough to see it, and Kang Xuedong, the general manager and even the group president, needs to come out.

Minister Xue's task is to determine the specific arrangement of the negotiation process and determine the content framework of the negotiation with the relevant person in charge of Total. Chen Mo, as his exclusive translator, is not qualified to sit at the negotiating table.

However, seeing everyone sitting in front of him, he shrank in the back alone, and it would be a lie to say that there was no resentment in his heart. However, Chen Mo didn't care too much, he could only comfort himself like Ah Q, sit in the back, and see the situation in the field more clearly. Anyway, I'm just a passerby, if I miss today, I'm afraid I won't have the opportunity to participate in this work in the future, why fight for that position?!

The joint project between PetroChina and Total is the transfer of the overall exploration and development rights of an oil project located offshore Cabinda, an Angolan enclave.

Since the outbreak of the Angolan civil war in 1975, which has been going on on intermittently for nearly 25 years, domestic oil companies have been hesitant to invest in such a region.

In particular, since last year, the peace process has reached an impasse due to the opposition UNITA's refusal to implement the peace agreement, and since November last year, the civil war has flare-up. The United Nations has already withdrawn from the Security Council Observer Mission because of the gravity of the situation.

However, both the government forces and the opposition know very well that the people of Angola as a whole can have food to eat and money to buy guns and artillery, relying on the country's oil reserves.

Since the 60s, when a large number of offshore oil fields were discovered, oil replaced coffee as the largest export commodity, and today, the oil industry has become the country's pillar industry, earning more than 60% of the country's economy.

Moreover, most of the country's oil reserves are located far from the mainland, but in the area around Cabinda, an enclave in the north of the country, far from the main battlefield. So, although the civil war continued, the impact in this regard was not great. Because both the government army and the opposition need the revenue from oil to support the war and win people's hearts.

Although CNPC has been hesitant to invest in war zones, it is also salivating in the face of Angola's abundant oil reserves. Total's investments in Africa are not particularly large, and their focus has always been on icy Russia compared to hot Africa.

Although they have investments in almost every region across the continent, they are not large, and most projects seek collaborators and share the risks.

CNPC has always been the object of cooperation that their company attaches more importance to, and the two sides have extensive cooperation in many projects in many countries and regions.

Faced with the complex situation in Angola and the strong position of Texaco Petroleum in the Cabinda region, CNPC has become another partner of their choice.

Therefore, after facing the signal of Total, this cooperation was valued by CNPC, and after a year and a half of repeated demonstrations, it finally entered the stage of substantive contact.

In fact, within PetroChina, there have always been different opinions on this cooperation, but in the face of domestic economic development and a sharp increase in demand, in the end, the intention of cooperation prevailed.

After all, the domestic demand for oil is increasing, relying only on domestic production and the supply of the Middle East, and the throat of development is getting tighter and tighter. The three major oil companies must actively expand oil supply channels and enhance their domestic oil resilience.

Although both sides are willing to cooperate, for such a huge investment project, any bit of information asymmetry, or a trivial concession, may cause huge losses, so both sides can't help but be cautious.

However, today's negotiations did not involve specific contract terms, as they belong to the preparatory group. The main task of Minister Xue this time is to determine the specific negotiation process and the general framework of cooperation with Total, and then the two sides will start formal negotiations in accordance with the agreement.

Therefore, although there were doubts about the other party's delay of half an hour in the morning, because there were no specific terms involved, the negotiations continued relatively smoothly.

Chen Mo's job is very easy, because he is not a member of the negotiation team, and he only needs to be responsible for Minister Xue. Others are different, especially several colleagues in the business department, any issue is raised, they have to immediately find out the corresponding information from the four large boxes of documents brought, compare with the staff of the other party, confirm, and notarize.

Although the temperature today is only about 10 degrees, everyone's faces are sweating profusely after a while, and the whole process of consultation is really like a war for them.

(The new book has been released for a long time, but the results are really frustrating, no clicks, no book reviews, no recommendations, no collections, only disappointment...... ）