U.S. President Barack Obama praised Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s take on refugee intake in Australia, which refuses to accept any more people from entering the Australian border, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Manila, Philippines, on Wednesday.

This week, when former Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed his views on Syria-IS debate, Turnbull declared that Australia will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. “We have a common purpose and a common strategy,” the prime minister said in a statement.

On the sidelines of the APEC 2015, both the leaders agreed that increasing the troops is not any answer to the IS assaults to the world. After the deadly Paris attacks, they were under the pressure of enhancing the number of troops, but they do not favour the step.

Obama also stated that he and Turnbull discussed how to reach out to the Muslim population in their nations and express their condolence. APEC saw a discussion that indicated that to put a halt to the ISIS assaults, it was important to initiate strong partnership between the two military superpowers, Russia and the U.S.

Obama had a conversation with Turnbull during which he invited the PM to come to the White House soon.

When the president and the prime minister were due to the media regarding the APEC talks, focusing on terrorism and trade, Obama sprang the invitation to Turnbull at the last minute. The media covered the conversation immediately. “One of the things I’m going to announce is that I’m going to invite you to Washington,” Obama whispered to the prime minister.

Obama said he had already discussed the trade matters with Turnbull in earlier bilateral meetings. “And as part of that, I extended an invitation to the prime minister to visit Washington sometime soon. And he’s agreed, so we’re going to be able to set up a time,” the president added.

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