Secret intelligence officials meet at Shangri-la Dialogue

The meeting was held by the Singapore government in private at a separate location on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, the source said. Such meetings have been held at the security forum in the past but were not reported.

Secret province officials meet at Shangri-La phone photo 1 — US Director of National Intelligence, Ms. Avril Haines, at the Shangri-la Dialogue conference. Photo: Reuters

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines joined Chinese officials despite bilateral tensions. Samant Goel, head of India’s foreign intelligence gathering agency, also attended, according to an Indian source.

“The ability for intelligence agencies to meet and have open dialogue is very important during this time,” another source said.

"The Singapore Ministry of Defence may facilitate some bilateral or multilateral meetings between intelligence agencies," a Singapore Ministry of Defence spokesperson said.

The US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand operate the Five Eyes network to collect and share a wide range of intelligence, and their intelligence officials meet regularly.

Large intelligence community meetings are rare and almost never made public.

While there are few details about the specific discussions in Singapore, the war in Ukraine and transnational crime were among the focuses of discussion.

One of the sources said no Russian representatives were present. Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Volodymr V. Havrylov was also in Singapore but said he did not attend the intelligence meeting.

Trung Kien (according to Reuters)

Source