Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here and for their very enlightening comments and answers.
The general observation is that western countries have removed Africa from their priorities in recent decades, and since politics abhors a vacuum, powers like Russia and China rushed to move in. We saw the consequences of that when the United Nations was voting on the war in Ukraine, and a number of African countries voted against resolutions or abstained from voting in favour of resolutions denouncing the Russian aggression into Ukraine. Western countries need to reinvest in Africa. I'll come back to that a little later.
I'd say that Africa is the continent of the future, economically speaking. So Canada absolutely needs to invest in Africa. In 2022, our esteemed colleague the parliamentary secretary was tasked with establishing and defining a strategy for Africa. In 2023-24, the departmental plan talked instead about a new strategic framework without really providing any details. The 2024-25 departmental plan no longer even refers to a framework; it talks about intensifying Canada's engagement with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with special emphasis on economic co-operation.
You made no mention in your presentation of the strategy or the framework. Where are we at? Do we have a strategy? Do we have a framework in place, or has it simply reverted back to a desire to enhance our relations in terms of economic co-operation, particularly with sub-Saharan Africa?