Foreign Affairs committee  It will be, absolutely, sir.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, there's no recognition of the government. The practice of Canada and I think of all other states is to recognize states, not governments. But there is a cooperation with the government and there is a practical recognition that this government is trying to do things

Foreign Affairs committee  It certainly is the case that there is a semi-autonomous region of Somaliland and there is Puntland and I don't think the transitional federal government could make any claim to being able to administer or govern those parts of Somalia. Somalia remains an exceptionally complex,

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I believe it is a factor, certainly. There's extensive population movement within the sub-region. There are very large numbers of citizens of one country living in another. At the same time, for some ethnic groups the population boundaries don't necessarily corres

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the first question, about levers that can be used to compel cooperation on the part of Eritrea and Ethiopia, certainly the record with regard to the implementation of the decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission suggests that

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I would like to add one small thing to my colleague's response. It is clear that the future of Ethiopia is crucial for the future of the sub-region.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the role of Ethiopia in Somalia, you will hear very different assessments of whether that role is benign or not, and part of the reason why my address focused on the immediate region and not just Somalia is you do have an interpl

Foreign Affairs committee  Again, both terms were used, and neither is used particularly by Canada. They're used by people in the country. But the AU declaration on the situation in Somalia that was adopted this month, for example, commended Ethiopia for its invaluable assistance to the transitional federa

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, the African Union has developed a plan, the key element of which is AMISOM. At the moment, two countries have contributed troops. Two more are on the cusp of doing so. There's an authorization for 8,000 troops. There is a hope that will be sufficient to fill the vac

Foreign Affairs committee  The big challenge with Somalia is that the situation is so dangerous that the countries participating in the group, with one or two exceptions, do not have an embassy there. Their people are not authorized to travel in Somalia because the situation in the field remains too danger

Foreign Affairs committee  Briefly, Mr. Chairman, there were two principal developments relating to Somalia, both at and on the margins of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa last week and over the weekend. The first, which immediately preceded the summit, was a meeting of the International Somalia C

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The International Contact Group is the principal international vehicle for engagement on Somalia. The group was founded two or three years ago and is co-chaired by the United States and Norway. It comprises both active members and observers, some from A

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The African Union has indicated a strong preference for AMISOM to hand the mission over to a UN force. This strong preference was reiterated last week at the African Union Summit as it was in the African Union Commission's most recent report. However, th

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chairman. With regard to AMISOM, Canada has not provided direct financial support to the AU mission, but Canada has provided considerable financial support to the African Union over the past number of years to assist its conflict resolution capacity. If there were a

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, members, it's an honour to appear before the standing committee to discuss Canada's engagement in the Horn of Africa, specifically in Somalia. I'll address the current situation in the Horn and in Somalia and discuss briefly Canadian and international diplomatic eff