[LuigiBonnafini]

OK, does that mean we’re going to split the check equally?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Sort of.

It means we put up all the money, and they take it.

[Fraxinus]

OK, does that mean we’re going to split the check equally?

what a side splitter

To a certain extent this is just following the polite fiction of diplomacy since the peace of Westphalia. Formally in diplomatic settings all countries are equals, in reality to borrow a phrase from Orwell: some are more equal than others.