Good afternoon colleagues.
This is meeting 19 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. It is Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
Today we're going to continue our study on key elements of Canada's foreign policy. We have finished our report on Sri Lanka. My intention is that it will be tabled in the House tomorrow.
Today we're going to begin part of what we decided earlier to study. We will begin our hearings on the Great Lakes region of Africa. From the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we have Ken Sunquist. We welcome him back. It's good to have him here again. He is the assistant deputy minister for Asia and Africa and chief trade commissioner. We also have Isabelle Roy, director of the west and central Africa division. From the Canadian International Development Agency, we have Allan Culham, acting vice-president for pan-geographics, and André Gosselin, regional director, central Africa and Great Lakes, Africa branch.
We welcome you here today, and we look forward to your opening comments. You have been here many times, so you know that we then move into the first round of questions. We look forward to what you have to say.
Go ahead, Mr. Sunquist, please.