Australia and Japan to sign defense and security cooperation treaty
CNN
Australia and Japan are set to sign a treaty to strengthen defense and security cooperation at a virtual summit on Thursday, after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida canceled trips to Australia and the United States due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the two leaders will sign a Reciprocal Access Agreement, which will for the first time set out a framework for the two countries' defense forces to cooperate with each other.
"This treaty will be a statement of our two nations' commitment to work together in meeting the shared strategic security challenges we face and to contribute to a secure and stable Indo-Pacific," Morrison said in a statement.
President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current 8-month conflict in Gaza, laying out a three-phase proposal Israel has submitted to wind down the grinding crisis as he declared, “It’s time for this war to end.