Mr. Speaker, the Canada-Lebanon parliamentary friendship group is honoured to welcome to Ottawa and to parliament the new chair of the Canada-Lebanon parliamentary group, Farès Bouez, a member of the Lebanon national assembly representing Kesrouan.
Having spent a number of years as his country's minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Bouez has solid political experience in his own country and internationally.
In his meetings with our Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the members of our friendship group and with the Canadian Lebanese community, Mr. Bouez will stress the importance of strengthening co-operation between our two countries, the importance of finding a longstanding and fair solution to the situation in the middle east and the importance of implementing UN resolution 425 on Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.
We welcome Mr. Bouez and wish him much success in this mission.