Thank you very much.
At the end of November 2018, Canada hosted the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Halifax. I'd like to acknowledge the work, in particular, of the executive committee of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association chaired by my colleague, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who is with us.
This committee passed a motion on November 27 with four crucial elements, declaring its unequivocal support via NATO to its ally, Ukraine: to condemn the Russian escalations of the war against Ukraine in the Black Sea; to call upon the Russian Federation to immediately release Ukrainian sailors and vessels; to cease the disruptions to commercial shipping; and lastly, to call upon NATO member countries to apply additional targeted, sectoral sanctions against the Russian Federation, should Russia not take immediate action to de-escalate.
In the context of this motion by the executive committee of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, I want to put to the three of you the question of the role of parliamentarians in our respective bilateral and multilateral relationships. Feel free to comment on any ideas you have that specifically go outside of the parliamentary engagement on security.
In other words, what, if anything, can we do in the relationship of parliamentarian to parliamentarian to strengthen our connections and our belief in the international rules-based order, and to promote relations between our four countries?