Attending an international gathering like this was exhausting.
Aside from the relatively harmonious atmosphere on the first day, the second day onward was an endless round of wrangling.
Funding was not much of an issue. Before the conference, Hua Nation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already negotiated with the various countries. Hua Nation would contribute ten billion dollars, the United States five billion, the European Union two billion, Russia one billion, Japan eight hundred million... for a total of twenty billion dollars.
The only disagreement lay with the Budget Committee.
No one knew what inappropriate drugs the American delegation had taken, but on the second day of the conference, they changed faces like performers in Sichuan opera. Yesterday, they had looked refined and eager to create prosperity together. Today, they had abruptly adopted an aggressive stance.
Director Carson in particular seemed like an entirely different person when the establishment of the Budget Committee was discussed. Compared with the smiling old man from yesterday, he was practically ready to take off his leather shoe and bang it on the table.
Still, this was hardly surprising.
After all, the Budget Committee would control the financial power of the entire International Lunar Hadron Collider Cooperation Organization. In theory, every expenditure, every company selected for project bidding, whether a revised design could be put into operation... anything involving the movement of funds required the Budget Committee's signature before it could pass.
It was unrealistic to fight for control over the entire project, so the United States could only settle for financial authority.
And in order to balance Hua Nation's influence over the project, even Russia, which was temporarily standing on Hua Nation's side, was more inclined to support the American demands.
Of course, Lu Zhou did not need to worry about such matters. There