Mr. Chair, I will agree with my colleague that so far there does not appear to have been any progress whatsoever on the diplomatic front. Nevertheless, I asked in committee recently whether Canada was still trying to keep the door open for bilateral discussions with Russia.
At the Australian G20 summit, Angela Merkel spent four hours with Mr. Putin. She continues to try to engage him on the Minsk agreements and things like that, so far with no success, but she continues to keep that door open.
In diplomatic situations that are as difficult as this, if people like Angela Merkel and François Hollande, who have also put sanctions and have a lot at stake in this situation, are able to keep the door open, there is nothing to prevent us from doing what we have done so far and yet still maintain that ability to actually speak to the Russians.