Thank you very much for being here and for your testimony. As you may know, this is a topic that's of significant interest to me.
I want to start with Ms. Dobner.
You talked about the fact that while things are relatively stable right now, we cannot take that stability for granted. I'm thinking particularly about Kosovo and Bosnia. I realize we're in an era where there is increasing geopolitical competition and strife in a region that is literally a fault line along that geopolitical influence, especially with Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and increasing aggression.
You mentioned our peacekeepers—civilian peacekeepers—and democracy. Historically, there was a tremendous amount of Canadian involvement, and about 15 to 20 years ago, there was a decision. As Canada was looking at targeting where it could have the best influence geographically, it was decided that this area was really Europe's backyard and that Europe was able to handle it. We moved from OSCE primarily to the EU missions.
Things have changed. We are now looking at much greater Euro-Atlantic integration. The Prime Minister has made it clear that we want to have greater security and economic ties with Europe, yet in the region, our presence in the last decade or so has not been significant. One of the reasons—you mentioned NATO—is the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has field missions all around the region. It has people present in place, and it targets economic and security issues, but there are no senior Canadians because, as far as I understand, when the OSCE hires people, the institution pays the per diem but the country from which a person originates pays the salary. If I'm not mistaken, for the last 18 years, Canada has refused to pay any salaries for any people who are seconded to the OSCE. That means the only presence we have in all of these missions is from young interns who just want experience or people who don't care about not getting paid. Other countries, like the U.S., are trying strategically to get positions within the OSCE in strategic places, and Canada is absent.
I wonder if there's been any discussion about reversing that policy of not seconding to the OSCE and perhaps agreeing to pay salaries for Canadians who are hired by the OSCE.