That's correct, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
First of all, even though it's going to eat into my time, I want to express our appreciation to General Natynczyk.
In particular, General, you would I know continue to convey to the men and women in uniform, despite what they might hear politically from time to time in the House of Commons, how strongly supportive we are of their effort, how much we've made an effort to bear witness to their sense of sacrifice, and how proud we all are as Canadians. This pride does not touch partisanship. I think it's unworthy of anyone to suggest that it does.
I just want to say with some considerable emotion how struck we all were, when we went to Afghanistan on our last trip, by the courage as well as the real, deep competence, and to express the real sense of pride we had as Canadians that there was a Canadian way of doing business in Afghanistan that was shared by everyone we met. Whether they were in uniform or were civilians, whether they were diplomats or were brigadiers, colonels, or privates, it didn't matter. I think we were all struck by that, and struck with a great sense of pride in what was being done.
It's in a sense because of that sense of pride and sense of competence that I must confess I was really quite taken aback by the crisis in the relationship with the UAE, which was allowed to develop apparently over a period of many months.
So my first question would be to Mr. Cannon. It would be to ask him whether he could tell us how many times, since the arrival of the UAE ambassador earlier this year, he has had the opportunity to meet with the ambassador in private to discuss what the concerns and the issues were, which touch not only on the landing rights issue, which has been well discussed, but on a number of issues around visas and around the relationship.
Could the minister tell us how many times he met with the ambassador?