We will begin the meeting.
Mr. Eide, as the president of the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, I'd like to say it's an honour to have you here in Canada and to have you here in front of our committee. In fact you're our first witness, so this is very good.
For the benefit of the viewing audience, Mr. Eide is the special representative for Afghanistan and the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Mr. Eide received that post on March 10.
I congratulate you on these great responsibilities and on your experience and your credibility, because of which you have earned these appointments. Congratulations.
I'll also just take a moment to acknowledge, again for our viewing audience, that our previous Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander, is of course the deputy special representative who works very closely with Mr. Eide. So we, as Canadians, certainly have a role to play.
Our time is limited, Mr. Eide, so I'll ask you to make an opening presentation and then we will do one round of approximately six to seven minutes each, in order to be able to ask questions of you.
On that note, sir, I would ask you to please commence your presentation.