pact

China has frequently accused the Philippines of acting as a ‘troublemaker’ and ‘saboteur of regional stability’.

The Philippines and Canada have signed a defence pact to expand joint military drills and deepen security cooperation in a move widely seen as a response to China’s growing assertiveness in the region, most notably in the disputed South China Sea.

Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr and Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty inked the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA) on Sunday after a closed-door meeting in Manila.

McGuinty said the deal would strengthen joint training, information sharing, and coordination during humanitarian crises and natural disasters.

Teodoro described the pact as vital for upholding what he called a rules-based international order in the Asia-Pacific, where he accused China of expansionism. “Who is hegemonic? Who wants to expand their territory in the world? China,” he told reporters.

The agreement provides the legal framework for Canadian troops to take part in military exercises in the Philippines and vice versa. It mirrors similar accords Manila has signed with the United States, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

China has not yet commented on the deal, but it has frequently accused the Philippines of being a “troublemaker” and “saboteur of regional stability” after joint patrols and military exercises with its Western allies in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, a vital global shipping lane, thereby ignoring a 2016 international tribunal ruling that dismissed its territorial claims as unlawful. Chinese coastguard vessels have repeatedly used water cannon and blocking tactics against Philippine ships, leading to collisions and injuries.

Teodoro used a regional defence ministers meeting in Malaysia over the weekend to condemn China’s declaration of a “nature reserve” around the contested Scarborough Shoal, which Manila also claims.

“This, to us, is a veiled attempt to wield military might and the threat of force, undermining the rights of smaller countries and their citizens who rely on the bounty of these waters,” he said.

Talks are under way by the Philippines for similar defence agreements with France, Singapore, Britain, Germany and India as Manila continues to fortify its defence partnerships amid rising tensions with Beijing.

China and 11-member regional bloc sign an upgraded version of their free trade pact, as both weather the impact of the US tariffs.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have upgraded their free trade agreement as trade between the two regions continues to rise in the shadow of United States President Donald Trump’s trade war.

The trade pact was signed on the sidelines of the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, in a ceremony witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The “3.0 version” of the deal will broaden collaboration on “infrastructure, digital and green transition, trade facilitation and people-to-people exchanges”, according to China’s State Council. It builds on the region’s first free trade pact with China, which came into force in 2010.

The 11-member ASEAN and China have become each other’s largest trade partners in recent years, thanks to the China Plus One supply chain that emerged after Trump’s trade war with China in 2018.

Trade between China and ASEAN has already hit $785bn in the nine months of 2025, up 9.6 percent year-on-year. Much of this trade reflects integrated manufacturing supply chains, but it also increasingly includes finished goods from China that are destined for Southeast Asian consumers.

In his remarks to the ASEAN summit on Tuesday, Li praised China and the bloc’s deepening trade relationship, and spoke of his expectation for “expanded and higher-quality economic cooperation” under the upgraded trade pact.

“Cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results, trade volume continues to grow steadily, and ASEAN governments have promoted even closer people-to-people exchanges,” he said.

Zhiwu Chen, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera that the “3.0” trade pact comes at a time when China is trying to shore up its relationship with ASEAN.

“This is very important for China, as its trade tensions with the US and EU have been rising, and China needs ASEAN countries. At the same time, this is a time for ASEAN to take advantage of the window of opportunities precisely for the same reason,” he said, describing the deal as a “win-win outcome for both sides”.

In his remarks, Li also took aim at Trump’s tariffs, which have disrupted global trade, and marked the most protectionist policy pursued by the US government since the 1930s.

“Unilateralism and protectionism have seriously disrupted the global economic and trade order. External forces are increasingly interfering in our region, and many countries have been unfairly subjected to high tariffs,” Li said.

The US president also attended the ASEAN summit on Sunday, and is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this week.

While at ASEAN, Trump signed trade deals with Cambodia and Malaysia, as well as framework agreements with Thailand and Vietnam, highlighting his preference for bilateral trade deals hammered out in one-on-one discussions.

The deals appeared to finalise Trump’s “reciprocal tariff” rate on the four countries, which were set earlier this year at 19 to 20 percent.

Tariffs and trade barriers are also expected to headline Trump’s meeting with Xi, after US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced that the two sides had reached a “framework agreement” on tariffs this week.

Earlier this month, Trump had threatened to impose a tariff of 100 percent on Chinese goods by November 1, after China strengthened export controls on rare earth minerals. Bessent said the framework agreement should help both sides “avoid” a tariff hike, according to Reuters.

Syria’s al-Sharaa voices hope for deal, warns of regional risks due to Israeli attempts to fragment country.

Israel is close to striking a “de-escalation” agreement with Syria, after the latter’s President signalled that his country was “scared” of the former’s relentless attacks since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s rule last year.

United States Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the agreement would see Israel stopping its attacks on its neighbour, while Syria will agree to not move any machinery or heavy equipment near the Israeli border.

Barrack said that both sides were negotiating “in good faith” on the agreement, which had been slated for completion this week, but had been slowed down by the Rosh Hashana holiday – the Jewish New Year – this week. The agreement would serve as first step towards an eventual security deal, he said.

Speaking shortly before Barrack, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled longtime autocrat ruler al-Assad back in December, voiced hope for a security deal, pointing out that his country had not created problems with Israel.

“We are scared of Israel, not the other way around,” he told an event of the Middle East Institute in New York.

“There are multiple risks with Israel stalling on the negotiations and insisting on violating our airspace and incursions into our territory,” he said.

“Jordan is under pressure, and any talk of partitioning Syria will hurt Iraq, will hurt Turkiye. That will take us all back to square one,” he added.

Al-Sharaa will be the first Syria leader to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday in six decades.

Risks of fragmentation

Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades, the enmity between the pair heightening during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has hobbled Syria’s attempts to get back on a stable footing, trashing a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two states, striking Syrian military assets and sending troops to within 20 km (12 miles) of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa said last week that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions.

Israel has alternately claimed that its strikes on Syria are aimed at preventing terrorism or protecting the country’s Druze minority, notably in the southern area of Suwayda where sectarian violence erupted in June. But Israel has brazenly bombed central Damascus as well.

Critics charge that Israel is seeking to fragment the country in a bid to keep it weak and exert its own dominance over the region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, al-Sharaa renewed his call to the US to formally lift sanctions imposed on his country to enable it to rebuild and held talks this week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Israel has been lobbying US lawmakers and policymakers at the State Department for months to keep sanctions in place.

In a historical twist of fate for the ages, al-Sharaa sat down for interview this week, whilst in New York for the UNGA, with former US General David Petraeus, who once arrested the then rebel righter and led American forces during the invasion of Iraq, later becoming the director of the CIA.

Sept. 18 (UPI) — Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have signed a mutual defense agreement, deepening their decades-long security partnership as tensions in the region heighten following Israel’s attack on Qatar last week.

The agreement was signed during Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

“This agreement, which reflects the shared commitment of both nations to enhance their security and to achieving security and peace in the region and the world, aims to develop aspects of defense cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression,” the two countries said in a joint statement.

“The agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”

Both countries said the agreement builds on their nearly eight decades of partnership that is based “on the bond of brotherhood and Islamic solidarity” as well as strategic interests.

The agreement was signed after Israel launched an attack targeting senior Hamas leadership in Qatar’s capital of Doha.

The move set off alarm bells throughout the Middle East, and threatened to undermine the trust of Gulf nations in the United States as not only be a reliable ally but a security guarantor.

During a summit on Monday in Doha, Arab and Islamic leaders came together in a sign of solidarity with Qatar.

It also comes several months following a four-day armed conflict between India and Pakistan.

India said Thursday it was aware of the agreement.

“We will study the implications of this development for our national security as well as for regional and global stability,” Shri Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, said in a statement.

“The government remains committed to protecting India’s national interests and ensuring comprehensive national security in all domains.”

Australian PM Albanese fails to sign mutual defence pact a week after also failing to sign security deal with Vanuatu.

Australia has failed to secure a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea (PNG) that would have seen their militaries commit to defending each other in the case of an armed attack.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape signed a “defence communique” in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday instead of the anticipated mutual defence treaty.

Albanese’s failure to sign the defence deal with PNG, the largest Pacific Island nation, comes on the heels of last week’s failed attempt by the Australian prime minister to secure a security partnership with fellow Pacific nation Vanuatu.

Both security deals are seen as part of Australia’s push to counter China as a rising power in the Pacific region.

Waiting a little longer to sign the treaty with PNG was “perfectly understandable”, Albanese told reporters, adding that he expected it to be signed in the “coming weeks”.

“The wording has been agreed to. The communique today, as signed, outlines precisely what is in the treaty,” Albanese said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Joint communique between Papua New Guinea and Australia on a Mutual Defence Treaty, signed today. 🇵🇬🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/rSUCHPLCJW

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 17, 2025

Marape told reporters there was “no sticking point”, suggesting that the mutual defence treaty could be signed shortly.

Marape also said that China had no hand in delaying the signing of the deal with Australia.

The Australian prime minister said earlier that the delay was due to a meeting of the PNG cabinet failing to reach a quorum of members to endorse the treaty.

Vanuatu security partnership also delayed

Last week, officials in Vanuatu said that the government’s coalition partners required further scrutiny of the security partnership with Australia, worth some $500 million Australian dollars ($326.5m), as there were fears it could limit the country’s access to infrastructure funding from other countries.

China is Vanuatu’s largest external creditor and has provided loans for Chinese firms to undertake major infrastructure projects in the country.

PNG’s Marape struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, telling journalists that it was in his country’s and Australia’s mutual interests to work side by side on defence.

“I made a conscious choice that Australia remains our security partner of choice,” Marape said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Australia’s delays in sowing deeper defence ties with PNG and Vanuatu in the Pacific region come as the much-vaunted AUKUS submarine deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, remains under a cloud amid a review of the original 2021 deal by the Pentagon.

US defence officials have said they ordered the review to reassess if it was in line with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Despite the review, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said in June that he was confident that the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with closely-guarded US nuclear propulsion technology, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to build next-generation nuclear submarines would proceed.

In a tetchy exchange with an Australian reporter on Tuesday, Trump revealed that Albanese would be visiting him shortly in Washington, DC.

When asked whether it was appropriate for a president to have so many business dealings, Trump told the ABC reporter that he was “hurting” relations between the US and Australia.

“You’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump told the reporter.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone,” Trump said, before sharply telling the reporter to be “quiet”.

Albanese is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week.

South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung said he will restore a military agreement to rebuild trust with North Korea.

South Korea has said it intends to restore an agreement suspending military activity along its border with North Korea and revive inter-Korean cooperation, as President Lee Jae-myung attempts to dampen soaring tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and deepening ties with Russia.

Marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule on Friday, Lee said he will seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement and rebuild trust with North Korea.

“To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the [2018] September 19 Military Agreement,” Lee said in a televised speech.

Lee added that his government “will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts” against its northern neighbour.

The September 19 agreement was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, where the leaders of both countries declared the start of a new era of peace.

But Seoul partially suspended the deal in late 2023 after it objected to North Korea launching a military spy satellite into space, with Pyongyang then effectively ripping up the deal as it deployed heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone between both countries and restored guard posts.

Tensions then spiralled between the two Koreas under Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s conservative ex-president who was elected in 2022 but removed from office in April and is now serving jail time for his brief imposition of martial law in December.

South Korea and North Korea – separated along the heavily militarised buffer zone known as the 38th parallel – are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Making clear his desire to resume dialogue with Pyongyang since winning a snap election in June, South Korea’s new left-leaning President Lee has taken a softer tone and sought rapprochement with North Korea.

Soon after his inauguration and in his government’s first concrete step towards easing tensions, Lee halted the South blasting propaganda messages and K-pop songs across the border into the North.

Earlier this month, South Korea began removing its loudspeakers from its side of the border, while Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed it had evidence that Pyongyang was doing the same.

But, on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong – the powerful sister of North Korea’s long-ruling leader Kim Jong Un – dampened any suggestion of warming ties between the Koreas.

Kim, who oversees the propaganda operations of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which has ruled the country since 1948, accused Seoul of misleading the public and “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.

“We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” Kim said.

Iran has said it will block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a United States-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been hailed by other countries in the region as beneficial for achieving lasting peace.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Saturday that Tehran would block the initiative “with or without Russia”, with which Iran has a strategic alliance alongside Armenia.

US President Donald Trump “thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years”, Velayati told state-affiliated Tasnim News, referring to the transport corridor included in the peace deal.

“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” he added, describing the plan as “political treachery” aimed at undermining Armenia’s territorial integrity.

The terms of the accord, which was unveiled at a signing ceremony at the White House on Friday, include exclusive US development rights to a route through Armenia that would link Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku’s ally Turkiye.

The corridor, which would pass close to the border with Iran, would be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, or TRIPP, and operate under Armenian law.

Velayati argued that it would open the way for NATO to position itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia.

Separately, Iran’s foreign ministry issued a statement expressing concern about the negative consequences of any foreign intervention in the vicinity of its borders.

While it welcomed the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ministry said any project near Iran’s borders should be developed “with respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and without foreign interference”.

For its part, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautiously welcomed the deal, saying on Saturday that Moscow supported efforts to promote stability and prosperity in the region, including the Washington meeting.

Similarly to Iran, however, it warned against outside intervention, arguing that lasting solutions should be developed by countries in the region.

“The involvement of non-regional players should strengthen the peace agenda, not create new divisions,” the ministry said, adding that it hoped to avoid the “unfortunate experience” of Western-led conflict resolution in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Turkiye on Saturday said it hoped the planned transit corridor would boost exports of energy and other resources through the South Caucasus.

A NATO member, Turkiye has strongly backed Azerbaijan in its conflicts with Armenia, but has pledged to restore ties with Yerevan after it signs a final peace deal with Baku.

The Turkish presidency said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the peace agreement with Ilham Aliyev, his counterpart from Azerbaijan, and offered Ankara’s support in achieving lasting peace in the region.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also addressed the planned corridor during a visit to Egypt, saying it could “link Europe with the depths of Asia via Turkiye” and would be “a very beneficial development”.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.

Armenia last year agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what Baku described as a “long-awaited historic event”.

Ahmad Shahidov, of the Azerbaijan Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that he expected a final peace declaration between Armenia and Azerbaijan to be signed in the coming weeks.

Shahidov said Friday’s US-brokered deal constituted a “roadmap” for the final agreement, which appears imminent given there are no unresolved territorial disputes between the two neighbours.

A SHOWJUMPER and horse rider had a threesome with a teen girl in a stable before hatching a “pact of silence”, a court heard.

Guy Simmonds, 37, and Lauren Jarvis, 26, are accused of targeting the girl despite knowing she was under 16.

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Equestrian boss Simmonds called himself “daddy” in messages to the youngster and would abuse with her while his girlfriend was away, jurors heard.

Prosecutor James Hartson said there was a “clear element of grooming behaviour” from Simmonds, who had “no doubt at all” about the girl’s age.

He added: “At all times he knew how old she was and so did Jarvis. The victim told him herself in one of the very first messages she sent him.

“The defendants didn’t care about her age when they were planning and engaging in a so-called threesome with the victim.

“They also knew what they did was wrong and they agreed a pact of silence when they got wind she had started to talk about it.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard Simmonds ran a riding school that offered “showjumping horse production and sales, coaching and schooling” in the village of Undy in Wales.

The experienced showjumper would allegedly regularly take the girl into a horsebox to sexually abuse her while they were alone at the stables.

Jurors heard that at one point, this was happening every couple of days when Simmonds’ girlfriend was away.

In January 2024, he messaged fellow rider Jarvis to organise a threesome at her home – asking when he should “pop over”, it was said.

Simmonds later messaged again asking whether the girl had arrived as he did not want to “turn up at the same time that her mum drops her off”.

Jurors heard the youngster had also text Simmonds about the threesome, asking what she would be made to do.

He replied: “You will both do what daddy says.”

Afterwards, Simmonds text Jarvis, saying: “Hey, I have a feeling that [name of alleged victim] has said about us. If anyone asks for sake of both of us nothing ever happened that night xx.”

Jarvis replied: “Hey, who’s she told? Oh god has she really, what’s she trying to do, make our lives hell? Of course I will xx.” 

The court heard the alarm was raised when the girl told her dad what had allegedly happened and he alerted police.

Simmonds told police he did not have any from of sexual contact with the victim.

He also claimed any messages about a threesome were “banter and a wind up.”

Simmonds denies six counts of sexual activity with a child, while Jarvis has pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual activity with a child.

The trial continues.

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July 20 (UPI) — The Transportation Department has announced a series of actions against Mexico for violating a years-old bilateral air carrier trade pact.

The department said Mexico has not been in compliance with the airline competition agreement since 2022 when it took back some slots for flights for U.S. air carriers at Benito Juarez International airport in Mexico City and forced U.S. cargo planes to shift their operations to other parts of the city.

“Since 2022, Mexico has altered the playing field significantly for airlines that reduce competition and allow prominent competitors to gain an unfair advantage in the U.S.-Mexico market,” a release from the Transportation Department said. “The United States and Mexico have an air services agreement… that commits both parties to a liberalized operating environment for all airlines…Mexico has walked away from its commitments.”

Mexico has said it rescinded the slots to make room for construction at the airport, but the work has yet to materialize three years later, the transportation department contended.

“By restricting slots and mandating that all-cargo operations move out of [Mexico City International Airport], Mexico has broken its promise, disrupted the market and left American businesses holding the bag for millions in increased costs,” the release continued.

The “America First” actions enacted by the Trump administration require Mexican airlines to file schedules with the transportation department for all of their U.S. operations, mandate prior DOT approval before operating any large passenger or cargo aircraft charter flights from the United States and addressing anti-competitive issues in the market.

Mexico seized slots from U.S.-based carriers American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines, as well as from three Mexican airlines — Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris — to make room for the construction.

“Despite repeated outreach from the Department, Mexico has not provided any information regarding when these slots would be returned or any major construction projects at MEX will ever materialize,” the release continued.

Duffy added that the United States is also reviewing trade agreements with other countries to determine if they are being violated, including pacts with some European nations.

Australia says the plan to deliver nuclear submarines remains unchanged, despite opposition to the pact from a top Trump official.

Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said he is “very confident” that the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom will continue to move forward despite news that the Pentagon is reviewing the 2021 deal between the three nations.

News of the review was first reported on Thursday as US defence officials said re-assessing the pact was necessary to ensure that the military deal, agreed to with much fanfare under former US President Joe Biden, was in line with US President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

The pact includes a deal worth hundreds of billions of dollars to provide Australia with closely-guarded nuclear propulsion technology. Only five other countries besides the US can build nuclear submarines: the UK, China, Russia, France and India.

“The meetings that we’ve had with the United States have been very positive in respect of AUKUS,” Defence Minister Marles told the ABC network.

A review of the deal is “something that it’s perfectly natural for an incoming administration to do … It’s exactly what we did”, Marles said.

“There is a plan here. We are sticking to it, and we’re going to deliver it,” he said.

Under the terms of the AUKUS deal, Australia and the UK will work with the US to design nuclear-class submarines ready for delivery to Australia in the 2040s, according to the US Naval Institute.

The three countries are already close military allies and share intelligence, but AUKUS focuses on key strategic areas, such as countering the rise of China and its expansion into the Pacific.

Due to the long lead time in building the submarines under the AUKUS deal, Australia also agreed to buy up to three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines during the 2030s. The US and UK also plan to start the rotational deployment of their submarines out of Australia in 2027.

But some Trump administration officials, such as Pentagon policy adviser Elbridge Colby, say the submarine deal puts foreign governments ahead of US national security.

“My concern is why are we giving away this crown jewel asset when we most need it?” Colby said last year.

Other officials, including US Representative Joe Courtney from Connecticut – a US state which has an industry focused on building submarines for the US Navy – say the deal is in the “best interest of all three AUKUS nations, as well as the Indo-Pacific region as a whole”.

“To abandon AUKUS – which is already well under way – would cause lasting harm to our nation’s standing with close allies and certainly be met with great rejoicing in Beijing,” Courtney said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to discuss the deal when he meets Trump next week during a meeting of the G7 leaders in Canada.

Earlier this year, Australia made a $500m payment towards AUKUS and plans to spend $2bn this year to speed up the production process in the US of the Virginia-class submarines.

The UK, like Australia, has downplayed concerns that the Trump administration could renege on the pact.

A UK official told the Reuters news agency that the deal is “one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades” that will also produce “jobs and economic growth in communities across all three nations”.

“It is understandable that a new administration would want to review its approach to such a major partnership, just as the UK did last year,” the official said.

MO SALAH and Arne Slot made the secret pact that took Liverpool to the title and made him Player of the Year.

The campaign began with Anfield shrouded in doubts – especially over whether Salah would sign a new deal and how Slot might handle the strain of being Jurgen Klopp’s successor.

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But Salah revealed how he was certain he could make the Dutchman a Prem champ in exchange for a pledge from the new manager.

Slot kept his word and so did the Kop’s Egyptian king as he reveals how over a series of discussions between the pair he declared: “I was very honest.

“I told him: ‘with me, you are going to win the Premier League but I have to feel really comfortable with the way we play.’

“He was very honest with me, we had a few honest conversations and he said to me: ‘OK, I will get the best out of you. I will put you in a situation where you feel comfortable but I need you to provide the numbers’.”

Provide those numbers Salah, just crowned the Football Writers Association’s player of the year for a third time, certainly did.

In what became a cruise to the crown he has set a new Prem high for a 38 – game season of 28 goals and 18 assists.

He needs two more goal involvements in tomorrow’s last game of the season against Crystal Palace to claim history by overtaking the joint record of 47 held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole set over 42 matches.

JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS

What’s more Salah will spend at least two more seasons with Liverpool having agreed a near – £400,000 a week new deal when he admits that the one pre – season doubt he did have was whether the club would come up with the numbers to make him stay.

Part of his concern was over the fact that owners Fenway Sports Group had always made age a number for older players.

He explained: “There is always a time either now or later when it is going to happen (Salah leaving) but I love this club.

“I always wanted to stay but I know my value and I was waiting for the club to arrive to the right point where me and the club are both going to be happy so that’s why the contracts took so long.

“Based on the club history, because the club treated players of 30 or 31 in different ways I wasn’t clear in my head that I was going to stay 100 percent.”

Salah, who has equalled Thierry Henry’s record of three FWA awards, couldn’t be happier with the way it has all worked out for him – and for the former Feyenoord manager.

His content is based not only on his own personal pride over what he says was a “crazy season, a crazy year” but also on the warm respect he has developed for Slot.

The 32-year-old stresses: “It’s so special, I have a good relationship with him and I am very respectful towards him and his staff because we all work really hard.

“At the beginning, we had that conversation, he asked me for stuff he wanted me to do.

“I asked him and put me in the positions and situations where I can really provide numbers and our relationship is very good and it’s working well.

“And he has improved me, absolutely. Now he will have to deal with me a bit longer!

“I’ve always believed there’s always room to improve and I think he did it very well and you see the numbers this year and I feel very happy about it.

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“I would give him half the credit and the other half to my teammates because they always help me in the situations to give me the ball or be at the right spot so they can pass the ball and I score.”

Salah also speaks warmly of the bond he has always had with the fans, even throughout a campaign of questions over whether he would go, or like skipper Virgil van Dijk, also sign on for another two years.

He says: “My relationship with the fans, I see it as very special.

“They see me as an honest guy and they could see that straight away.

“I think that’s why our relationship is special and that’s why they love me. I don’t hide the stuff, I always share.”

He has improved me, absolutely. Now he will have to deal with me a bit longer!

Mo Salah on Arne Slot

Having picked up the FWA prize at an awards dinner on Thursday night he can now look forward to an even brighter future with Slot – and makes another vow.

He says: “One game to go, I broke the record for 38 games so I am going to go fully focused for the last game and hopefully I can get two goals or assists.

“So I go again next year to break records again!”

There are no doubts for him that he can keep doing so either, even if he turns 33 next month.

The daddy of them all throughout Liverpool’s Prem history insists: “People need to realise that in the last five or ten years players start hitting their peak when they are 30 and upwards.

“When they have more experience and can manage their emotions and can provide big numbers.

“Football has changed now, people take care of themselves, if you try to do everything right you are going to play until you decide it’s time to retire.

“I said the other day I will probably play until I’m 39, 40 … until the kids tell you: ‘It’s OK, you leave football now and you stay with us!”

May 20 (UPI) — The United States and United Arab Emirates are deepening their commercial and defensive ties following President Donald Trump‘s recent diplomatic trip to the Middle East.

Officials with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and the UAE’s Tawazun Council signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen defense cooperation between the two nations, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday in a news release.

“We are building a global network by fostering collaboration to stay ahead of emerging threats,” DIU Director Doug Beck said.

“We are accelerating the integration of commercial technologies into the defense markets,” Beck added.

He said the accelerated integration of technologies will occur by working together to develop technologies with the help of national security and private sector experts and non-traditional companies.

The MOU includes using “non-traditional practices” to develop and access “cutting-edge technologies” to improve both nations’ defensive capabilities.

The collaborative effort expands defensive investments and industrial partnerships while building a “strong international community of defense innovation entities, according to the DOD.

The Defense Department “is enhancing best practices for harnessing and sharing the best commercially derived technologies for the warfighter in defense of the free and open international system through mission-driven collaboration among the many nations that rely on that system,” the DOD release said.

Trump on Thursday also announced $200 billion in commercial agreements between the United States and the UAE.

The agreement includes forming an artificial intelligence alliance and launching a 1-gigawatt and jointly run AI technology cluster that will be located in the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi.

Other elements of the $200 billion deal include the UAE’s Etihad Airways spending $14.5 billion to buy 28 U.S.-built Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines.

Emirates Global Aluminum will invest another $4 billion to develop an aluminum smelter in Oklahoma and double that nation’s annual aluminum production capability.

UAE entities also will collaborate with U.S.-based oil and natural gas producers to expand production of both inside the United States and to lower energy costs in both nations.

Many other deals were secured during Trump’s visit to the Middle East last week and total $2 trillion in investment agreements, according to White House officials.