The current emperor is Komay Saval, who has ruled since 1993, when his father, Jérazo Saval, stepped down on charges of assaulting the wife of War Minister Renato Villa. With over 244 million living within its boundaries as of mid-1997, the Empire contains the fifth-largest population in the world after India, China, the United States, and Coastal Africa. Since the Treaty of Singapore in June 1979, the Empire has established slow trade and economic relations with the outside world, attempting to attract an influx of stability and mitigate hostility, especially from the United States, China and Korea, all of whom have suffered great loss at the hands of Imperial troops in the past forty years.