An agreement in principle is a handshake. A technical annex is a contract. Between Thursday’s breakthrough and the reopening of the Kaelmar Strait lies a week of work that both diplomatic delegations acknowledge will be difficult, detailed, and decisive.

The fifth session of the quiet channel talks is scheduled for Thursday 19 March at the Foreign Office on Chancery Row. Sir Duncan Hale and Count Viktor Soren will reconvene with a mandate to complete the technical annexes that will give legal and operational force to the Transit Corridor Framework agreed in principle on 12 March.

There are four annexes. Each is substantial.

Annex 1: Vessel Classification

Which ships may transit the corridor, and under what conditions? The framework establishes a designated transit corridor through the northern channel, with routing and speed limits. But it does not yet specify the classification of vessels permitted to use it.

Diplomatic sources indicate at least three categories are under discussion: cargo vessels (by tonnage class), passenger ferries, and fishing boats. Military vessels are excluded. The Delvarian delegation is understood to want a tonnage cap; the Thessarine delegation favours an open classification with cargo-type restrictions.

“The difference matters,” said Professor Elias Thornbury of the Bobington Institute for Foreign Affairs. “If you cap tonnage, you exclude the larger Sarenne-class bulk carriers that have been rerouting for a month. Those vessels carry the largest spice and copper consignments. The market needs them.”

Annex 2: Insurance Schedules

The agreement establishes a joint underwriting guarantee, premiums capped at 140 per cent of pre-crisis rates, and a neutral claims panel in Fenmouth. But the schedules — the specific premium tables, claims procedures, and coverage scopes — must be drafted and agreed.

This is where the insurance market is watching most closely. Caspar Helmsley of Tidewater Mutual has not written a Kaelmar-route policy since 12 February. He has said, politely and repeatedly, that he will not do so until he has seen the insurance annex.

“Principles do not underwrite cargo,” Helmsley said on Wednesday, a phrase that has been quoted in every trading house on Threadneedle Street since.

Annex 3: Signalling Protocols

Vessels transiting the corridor must communicate with the Joint Maritime Inspection Commission — the body comprising three Delvarian, three Thessarine, and one neutral Ashford Republic observer. The signalling protocols will specify radio frequencies, reporting intervals, identification procedures, and the circumstances under which a vessel may be ordered to halt.

This is technically complex and politically sensitive. Radio frequencies in the Kaelmar region are currently controlled by the Delvarian Northern Fleet. Any framework must establish shared civilian channels without compromising either nation’s military communications.

Annex 4: Inspection Commission Rules

The agreement specifies random inspections by vessel class and cargo type, with 48-hour advance manifest submission. But the rules of the commission itself — voting procedures, dispute resolution, the powers of the Ashford Republic observer, and the mechanism for barring non-compliant vessels — require codification.

“This is the annex most likely to cause difficulty,” Thornbury observed. “Because it is the annex that determines who has authority when something goes wrong.”

The Fleet

The Delvarian Northern Fleet remains in position in the northern channel. No withdrawal has been announced. No withdrawal has been discussed, as far as sources are aware. The fleet’s continued presence is, in diplomatic terms, a leverage position — ensuring that Delvaria retains military options even as it pursues a civilian framework.

Thornbury cautioned against reading too much into this. “The fleet was there before the talks began. It will be there when they end. What matters is whether ships transit safely beneath it. That is what the annexes must guarantee.”

The Week Ahead

Both delegations are understood to be working through the weekend on preliminary drafts. Marchetti’s office is coordinating. Soren was seen arriving at the Delvarian consulate on Ashbury Lane on Friday evening with a portfolio of documents. Lindqvist has not been observed at the Foreign Office since Thursday.

One week. Four annexes. And then, perhaps, the first commercial vessel through the Kaelmar Strait in more than a month.

“They have agreed on the shape of the thing,” Thornbury said. “Now they must agree on every measurement.”