Thank you, Mr. chair.
According to our analysis, the United Nations and the Security Council play a very important role. Even though their efforts have not been successful so far, they have been significant.
For example, members of the committee have referred to the importance of creating some tools. We have seen the United Nations and the Security Council create some new tools that had never been seen before in order to resolve the Darfur situation, such as the peacekeeping mission and the combined mission. As a matter of fact, there had never been such a level of a cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union.
The same type of cooperation is present in some of the peace processes. Mr. Roed-Larsen, the representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, is working in close cooperation with Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, representing the president of the African Union Commission. Both work closely with the movement in order to establish the circumstances that would relaunch the negotiations. The Security Council has implemented some measures called the targeted sanctions, applied to the funding of weapons and to the travels of some individuals.
Furthermore, other United Nations people, such as Sir John Holmes, Mr. Guéhenno, on the peacekeeping side, and the Secretary-General himself are still very involved in this situation. Of course, the members of the Security Council, including permanent members such as France, the United Kingdom and China, play very important roles on the Sudan situation in a national context.
Mr. Chairman, with regard to financial contributions for air assets, the Canadian government made an extraordinary contribution during the AMIS phase, but with the creation of UNAMID, the responsibility for the provision of those assets has now been taken on by the United Nations on the basis of assessed contributions. So we have been told formally by the United Nations that the contribution we were making is no longer required.
There is Canadian support for the transport of some of the African peacekeeping forces, for example. There is support still through our helicopters not yet withdrawn, but as UNAMID deploys, that responsibility will be transferred. We've been told formally by the United Nations that the helicopters will no longer be required.
With regard to the responsibility to protect, our Prime Minister has said in a formal statement that R2P does indeed apply to Sudan. What's called for in this case is the effective deployment of a peace support operation, and this is why we have put so much store in getting UNAMID on the ground, and this is why we made such an extraordinary contribution to try to ensure the success of the AU force, AMIS beforehand, sir.