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Canada and Israel this week signed an agreement to bolster cooperation on international development and aid projects, marking what Ottawa’s Israeli embassy called “another step forward” in the strong ties between Canada and Israel.

On Monday, Daniel Carmon, the head of Israel’s development agency called Mashav, met with the president of the Canadian International Development Agency in Ottawa to sign the pact — a move that adds yet another pillar to the deepening relationship between the two countries.

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“Canada and Israel share a bond of friendship and are allies in the democratic family of countries,” International Development Minister Julian Fantino said in a statement released by Israel’s embassy in Ottawa.

The agreement is similar to ones Canada has signed with Australia, Brazil and South Korea over the past year, and it is slated to open the door to ramped-up policy dialogue, new links between Canadian and Israeli institutions and, potentially, multilateral relationships sometime in the future. In fact, Mr. Carmon said that while Israel has traditionally been reluctant to forge multilateral partnerships on the development front, it has grown increasingly willing to branch out from bilateral pacts with countries such as France and Germany.