Senior military representatives of the United States and Canada signed three agreements to deepen the two nations’ combined defense and security. Army Gen. Charles Jacoby, commander of NORAD and head of US Northern Command, and Lt. Gen. Walter Semianiw, Canada Command commander, signed the civil assistance plan, combined defense plan, and an information-sharing memorandum of understanding. “These three documents provide us with the necessary means to better coordinate our combined military resources to help our fellow Americans and Canadians during emergencies,” said Jacoby in a NORAD release. He added, “They also help us be better prepared to defend the interests of our two great countries.” The two generals signed the documents on Tuesday in Ottawa, where they were attending the semi-annual meeting of the permanent joint board on defense, the highest level US-Canada defense forum. Their signatures renewed the CAP, which was first signed in February 2008. The CDP and MOU are new agreements.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.