“Australia and Israel are embracing defence innovation and this working group will provide a forum to discuss industry and innovation issues, assist in identifying export opportunities, and support our industries to co-operate in the development of innovative technologies for shared capability challenges," said Minister Pyne.

The Australian government is investing more than $1.6 billion over the decade to build the innovation capabilities of Australian industry, universities and research institutions, and to deliver solutions for Defence capability.

Minister Pyne said, “The joint working group was established under a memorandum of understanding signed by the Prime Minister in October 2017, I look forward to seeing the outcomes from this first joint working group meeting, and the future co-operation between our defence industries.”

As part of the visit to Israel, Minister Pyne met with senior representatives of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and defence industry.