Israel and the United States will upgrade their 4-year-old strategic cooperation agreement when Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin visits Washington next week.
Rabin will sign a new memorandum of understanding with U.S. Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, Haaretz reported Wednesday. According to Israel Embassy sources in Washington, it will parallel U.S. agreements with NATO allies.
One feature will give Israel its long-sought right to participate in bidding for U.S. army procurement contracts. That privilege was not specified in the strategic cooperation agreement signed during Premier Yitzhak Shamir’s visit to Washington in November 1983. President Reagan announced at that time the creation of the U.S.-Israel Joint Political Military Group.
Rabin is due in New York Friday and will go to Washington Sunday for three days of talks with top administration officials. In addition to Carlucci, he will meet with Gen. Colin Powell, Reagan’s national security adviser; Navy Secretary Joseph Webb; Army Secretary John Marsh; Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead; and former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
Rabin will visit the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. on Dec. 16, before returning to Israel.
According to Haaretz, the defense minister will use his trip to the United States to promote Israel’s military industries and, specifically, to seek an agreement enabling the American armed forces to purchase Israeli weapons systems.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
