Afghanistan committee  I will take the first crack at it, and then perhaps Assistant Commissioner Souccar may want to complement that. It is a challenge--there's no doubt about it--to really bring this police force to a level of efficiency that would actually work for all of us. That's a really big issue, a big challenge.

Afghanistan committee  That is also progressing. Again, my personal desire would be to be able to tell you that it's progressing very quickly, but it's hard work. Let's take it by sequence. Police is one piece of work that's under way. Then people are moved on to prisons. Sarposa is now in many ways a model institution in Afghanistan, certainly in terms of having standards comparable to many other institutions in the developed world.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the members of this committee for inviting us this morning and giving us the opportunity to explain a bit about what we're trying to accomplish in Afghanistan on the policing side. I'll start with a short introduction. Mr.

Afghanistan committee  There again, police training is an issue that is coming up regularly at international meetings, one that is really critical. We all understand that the Afghans also understand the importance of training a competent and professional police force. It's progressing. It's not progressing as fast as we would wish and it's not progressing as well as we would wish.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Stephen. That's a very important question. It was really at the centre of the discussions and the preoccupation of several delegations in Paris. Corruption is an issue that was raised with President Karzai in unequivocal terms, both during bilaterals as well as during the plenary by, I would say, most if not all the delegations that were around that table.

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for giving me and my colleague from CIDA, Stephen Wallace, this opportunity to brief you on the Paris conference. On June 12, the governments of France and Afghanistan, alongside the UN, co-hosted a high-level conference on Afghanistan.