OTTAWA, June 15 -- Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney on Monday met with visiting United StatesDeputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work here, hoping to build closer cooperation between the two countries in defense.

The American defense official is here ahead of celebrations organized to mark the 75th anniversary of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD), a bilateral advisory body on defense cooperation between the United States and Canada, according to a document posted at the website of the Ministry of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces Monday.

In the meeting, Kenney and Work discussed common defense issues and current security challenges facing Canada and the U.S., including the defense of North America and the efforts to fight the Islamic State.

Another meeting of the PJBD will be held in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, Tuesday to focus a host of topics on Canada-U.S. defense and security engagement in the Western Hemisphere and cooperation in global defense matters.

The PJBD, established at the inaugural meeting held in New York, on Aug. 18 1940, by the then Canadian Prime Minister King and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, has been serving as a strategic- level consultative body on matters affecting the defense and security of the northern half of the Western Hemisphere as well as more global defense and security issues that have implications for North America.