Intelligence Heads Meet in Covert, Russia Excluded
This past weekend, senior representatives from roughly two dozen of the world’s top intelligence agencies met in secret on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore, according to five persons who spoke to Reuters.
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Secret Meeting Held
These conferences are organised by the Singaporean government and have been covertly held simultaneously with the security summit for several years, they claimed. There hasn’t been any prior reporting about the meetings.
Despite the tensions between the two superpowers, China was one of the additional countries there while the United States of America was represented by Head of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the top of her nation’s intelligence community.
Samant Goel, the director of India’s Research and Analysis Wing, commonly referred to as RAW, which is in charge of gathering intelligence abroad, was also present, according to an Indian source.
One source with knowledge of the proceedings stated, “The meeting is an important fixture on the international shadow agenda.” Given the diversity of the participating nations, it is no ordinary summit, but one of important nature and a means of fostering a better understanding of the objectives and intentions of other countries.
One of the sources stated that when tensions are high, there is a secret but standard protocol among intelligence services that allows them to communicate when more formal and transparent diplomacy is challenging. The Singapore event supports this. All of the sources have chosen confidentiality due to the nature of the topic.
Government Responses
According to a representative for the Singapore Ministry of Defence, “participants including senior officials from intelligence agencies also take the opportunity to meet their counterparts” at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
The spokeswoman stated that “the Singapore Ministry of Defence may facilitate some of these bilateral or multilateral meetings.” Participants have found these out-of-the-way gatherings to be valid, added the ministry
Replies from the Indian and Chinese governments were not received whereas the American Embassy operating in Singapore said that it did not know about any such meeting.
To gather and share a wide range of intelligence, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand run what is known as the Five Eyes network, and their intelligence officers routinely meet.
Greater gatherings of the intelligence community are uncommon and hardly ever made public.
Ukraine-Russia Discussed, Russia Excluded
Even though very little information from the summit has been revealed to the public, one individual with valuable information has come out and confirmed that the meeting, which was officially held on Friday but which had a prelude informal meeting on Thursday night, included discussions on subjects such as the Ukraine-Russia War and international crime.Â
Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister, Volodymr Havrylov said that he didn’t attend the paramount intel meet, during his presence at the main summit. There was a notable absence of Russian representatives at the meeting.
Another source claimed that the meeting’s atmosphere was one of partnership and cooperation rather than hostility.
Shangri-La Meet
The main security summit was held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore with 499 nations contributing to over six hundred participating representatives. Three days of general discussions as well as private bilateral and multilateral meetings were held at the hotel.
In addition to British equivalents, Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu, American Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were present.
Haines was one of the recognised American representatives at the Shangri-La Dialogue. She responded to a query from a Chinese military officer during a discussion on cybersecurity at the keynote summit by stating that international cooperation was crucial.
Meanwhile, CIA Director William Burns has been confirmed by U>S officials to have met Chinese Intelligence officials to improve relations between Beijing and Washington.
