Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As Mr. Bobiash has already updated you on developments in Sudan and the impressions and findings of the Whole-of-Government mission, I would like to take this opportunity to brief you on other activities I undertook during this trip, thereby giving you a picture of how Canadian diplomacy is engaged on Sudan as an issue of international significance. I will also elaborate on certain themes which we touched upon during the October 19 session but which time did not permit us to elucidate fully.
Prior to joining the Whole-of-Government group in Khartoum, I travelled to Cairo for meetings with officials in the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the Secretariat of the League of Arab States. The purpose of these meetings was not only to exchange views and information with counterparts, but also to advocate Canadian positions with international actors with considerable interest and influence in Sudan. These meetings are an example of the diplomatic effort which Canadian officials are undertaking on a continuous basis with countries in the region and beyond, and in multilateral forums in support of our security and humanitarian objectives in Sudan.
While in Cairo, I also participated in a Canada-Arab League seminar and in a workshop organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung on security in the Horn of Africa, where I had occasion to meet knowledgeable academics as well as senior SPLM representatives, including the Chairman of the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly's Security Committee.
I also briefly visited Addis Abeba, where I convened and chaired an informal meeting of likeminded countries at the Canadian embassy to compare notes and coordinate positions; most were in Addis for the meeting of the Sudan Consultative Forum at the headquarters of the African Union on November 6. The Consultative Forum is a group which meets under joint UN and African auspices to consult major players on approaches to Sudan, and grew out of the work of Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, who heads the AU High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan. The AUHIP's work has broadened beyond Darfur, and is now leading efforts to broker north-south agreement on outstanding questions related to the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the status of Abyei, and on post-referendum issues, including citizenship, oil, water resources, assets and liabilities, currency and economic cooperation.
President Mbeki briefed the group on his plans to secure a framework document, through a negotiation he launched the following day in Khartoum, and which has established principles for future peaceful relations within which the details of post-2011 arrangements can be negotiated. Negotiations, including on the thorny issue of the Abyei enclave, are expected to resume later this week, after the Eid holiday. The Sudanese Foreign Minister and the Southern Sudanese Minister of Peace and CPA Implementation were both present.
While it was encouraging to hear their commitments to sustained north-south peace, to a peaceful and credible referendum, and to respecting the outcome of the referendum, the Forum was an opportunity to impress upon them the international community's concern about outstanding issues, the need for urgent action to resolve these issues, and the need to be ready to accept compromises in the interests of peaceful coexistence.
The Consultative Forum also considered the ongoing conflict in Darfur and encouraged redoubling efforts to conclude an agreement in Doha, with a view to then broadening discussions through an inclusive process within Darfur, providing a conducive environment has been created.
Gentlemen, you have seen in the press that voter registration for the referendum began on Monday. We heard more about that from the Carter Center just now.
It began despite numerous logistical and political challenges and delays. This is an encouraging start. Canadian embassy representatives in Juba have been present to observe and report on it. It's important that this process go smoothly in order to make a credible referendum, beginning on January 9, possible.
The referendum is an important moment in Sudan's history, but far more important is what happens afterwards. It's for this reason that Canada is bending its efforts to support not just the referendum itself but a stable Sudan in which development can take place regardless of the outcome of the referendum.
The real significance of the referendum, I would say, is not so much that it will determine independence or unity, but that it represents the culmination of the comprehensive peace agreement. This is therefore a critical phase in the CPA, perhaps the most dangerous the CPA has faced.
The agreement has proven resilient in the past; it has withstood many challenges, including the death of John Garang, the leader of the SPLM and one of the authors of the CPA, who died only months after the agreement was concluded. It has withstood the withdrawal of the SPLM from the Government of National Unity in Khartoum in 2007. They returned a couple of months later.
Canada's strategy is to support the CPA through its conclusion in 2011 and to enhance efforts to ensure stability and development throughout Sudan thereafter. A crucial element of our strategy is to build the capacity of the Government of South Sudan to fulfil its duties to its people, through training and the provision of outside expertise. Such capacity-building will be necessary and relevant regardless of the outcome of the referendum, whether southern Sudan remains an autonomous, self-governing region, as it is today, or whether it chooses to become fully sovereign and formally independent. An example of that capacity-building is the police training, which Mr. Bobiash spoke of earlier.
I would be happy to answer committee members' questions in the official language of their choice.