The heads of the US CIA and the UK’s foreign intelligence service, known as MI6, underlined the importance of their countries’ intelligence partnership as they made an unprecedented joint public appearance in London on Saturday (7).
The event – a discussion at the FT Weekend Festival chaired by the paper’s editor Roula Khalaf – marks the first time the two men – MI6’s Richard Moore and CIA chief Bill Burns – have appeared together on a public stage.
The two men spoke of the importance of the US-UK partnership, particularly in the face of Russian aggression. Burns cited the build-up to war in Ukraine, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022, as a prime example.
“Going back to the fall of 2021, the two of us together, our services together, were able to provide a credible, early, accurate warning of the coming invasion, which was no small feat at the time, because almost every other service around the world, our intelligence counterparts, thought this was a bluff on Putin’s part,” the CIA chief said.
“I think that good intelligence allowed our leaders, our political leaders, to mobilize a very strong coalition to combat Putin’s aggression.”
Burns said that helped Ukrainians defend themselves. He also spoke of a “new approach” to declassifying some documents from the period that had been under seal, as a way to deny Putin the opportunity to peddle false narratives. That put Putin in the “unusual and uncomfortable position of being on the wrong foot,” Burns said.
Speaking about the threat from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, Moore said there is a lot of “pragmatic cooperation” between these countries.
“Of course, we can see it, unfortunately, on the battlefield in Ukraine. You can see North Korea, North Korean weaponry. You can see Iranian drones. You can see the kind of assistance that the Chinese have provided through sort of dual-use material. You see all of this happening in our world.”
Furthermore, Burns said there has not yet been any “direct evidence” that China is supplying arms and ammunition to Russia for use in Ukraine. However, he said, “We see a lot of things falling short of that, as Richard said, in terms of dual-use items, the kind of things that have allowed Putin over the last 18 months to significantly rebuild his defense industrial base, and that poses a real danger.”
The Kremlin narrative
Speaking about Ukraine’s surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk border region, Burns said such developments help counter the “arrogant and smug attitude.”
According to Burns, Putin’s approach to the war in Ukraine has been that “it is only a matter of time before the Ukrainians are crushed and all their supporters in the West are worn down,” allowing the Russian president to then dictate the terms of a settlement.
Developments like Ukraine’s Kursk offensive help “undermine” that narrative and raise questions among the Russian elite about “where this is all going,” Burns said. Last month’s offensive saw Ukrainian forces storm Kursk in a cross-border attack that caught even U.S. officials by surprise.
Burns described the Kursk offensive as a “significant tactical achievement” that served to boost Ukrainian morale as well as expose some of the vulnerabilities of Putin’s Russia and its military. Last year’s short-lived uprising led by former Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin also helped undermine that narrative, Burns said.
The CIA chief, however, does not see Putin’s grip on power weakening. “He does one thing very well, which is repressing people inside Russia.”
The conversation with Moore and Burns was preceded by a jointly written editorial in the Financial Times, in which they stressed that the international world order was “under threat in a way not seen since the Cold War”.
This content was originally published in CIA and MI6 chiefs make unprecedented public appearance in London on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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