Newly appointed Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, General Ray Henault is the first Canadian Forces officer to occupy the post in 25 years. This, he says, is important for Canada from the international perspective and a great mark of confidence in its role in the alliance. While Canada no longer has troops permanently stationed in Europe, it plays an important role in NATO ' peacekeeping operations. It is currently setting up a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Kandahar, Afghanistan, initially under the US-led Operation 'Enduring Freedom', but this will switch to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as part of its stage three expansion to the south of the country. "By [early] next year, the February-March timeframe, we will be able to formally transition to stage three of our plan for Afghanistan," Gen Henault said. "Stage one is now complete [north of Kabul], stage two in the west is almost complete," he says, adding that national commitments made at the force generation conference on stage three expansion were "very, very positive".
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