Thank you for the question, madame.
And let me say that I didn't negotiate any part of the 2005 agreement. I signed that agreement on behalf of the Government of Canada, with its full approval. It had been negotiated by experts from the Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs, with input from international law experts. And if you want to listen, I'll be able to tell you, since you asked the question, that I was on my way into Kandahar in early December 2005 because we had established now the provincial reconstruction team on Kandahar airfield and were in the process of building up infrastructure to receive the battle group. I was going to visit Kabul, and one of the people I was going to visit was the minister of national defence, Minister Wardak, who I knew very well from our previous time working together when I was the commander of ISAF.
The agreement was then ready. The international experts, including the judge advocate general for the Canadian Forces, had given their opinions that this was a good agreement, well thought through--perhaps in hindsight, it could have been better--and that it was ready for signature; and Minister Wardak, knowing I was coming to Kabul, asked if I would sign it on behalf of the Government of Canada. Because he was signing on behalf of the Government of Afghanistan, I had no problem with that whatsoever.
Ambassador David Sproule, who I then spoke to before we went to the defence minister, said Foreign Affairs was very comfortable with this. The agreement was ready. It was a Government of Canada to a Government of Afghanistan agreement. We went to Minister Wardak's office, we had our coffee, we signed the document with Ambassador Sproule orchestrating, moving the papers around with little yellow stickies, and then, much to my embarrassment, Minister Wardak slipped outside for a cigarette and I slipped out for a cigar.
I signed that agreement at his request because I was in theatre. It was an agreement between the Government of Canada and Afghanistan.