Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity yesterday in this House to explain the need at this point for the United Nations to establish new directives for the troops in order to avoid a repetition of the hostage taking and, perhaps, to redefine their mandate so that the troops could act more quickly in the event of an emergency than they have been able to in the past.
Today, at the United Nations, the Secretary General is to submit new directives in this regard to the Security Council. We had an opportunity over the weekend to express Canada's point of view. We will see what the Security Council decides. Our troops in Bosnia are under the command of the United Nations, and the UN gives the necessary orders.
The Secretary General confirmed to me that the role of our soldiers needed redefining and that they should be redeployed so as to be in a position to defend themselves more readily. We will see what the UN decides later on this week.
As for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he is acting on the instructions in the statements issued in this House during yesterday's debate by the Minister of National Defence and my responses in Question Period yesterday.