March 7, 2008
No. 53
The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today participated in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels that addressed a number of key issues.
"I had a very constructive dialogue with my NATO counterparts today," said Minister Bernier. "We considered a wide range of issues, including NATO partnerships and deployed operations-discussing the situation in Afghanistan and the NATO-led mission there, which is a top priority for NATO and Canada."
NATO's International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan demonstrates the important role that NATO can play in ensuring peace and security beyond the Euro-Atlantic region.
Minister Bernier outlined the steps the Canadian government is taking to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan. "I emphasized that Canada's participation in the mission in Afghanistan after February 2009 is conditional on our securing a partner that will provide a battle group of approximately 1,000, as well as medium helicopter lift capacity and high performance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles."
Canada is strongly committed to NATO and views this 26-country alliance as the primary forum for security consultation between Europe and North America.
Minister Bernier will now visit the Netherlands to reinforce the strong and long-standing relationship that Canada and that country share across a broad range of areas-notably trade, investment and defence-as well as the ongoing cooperation between the two countries to promote security, governance and development, in particular in southern Afghanistan.
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