US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines (centre), attends the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 3 – Photo: REUTERS
Reuters news agency on June 4 reported on a closed meeting of the world's top intelligence "bosses".
These meetings have been held by the Singapore Government on the sidelines of the Asian Security Conference (Shangri-La Dialogue) for many years, but no reports have been recorded.
Singapore's Ministry of Defense spokesman said that while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, "participants including senior officials from intelligence agencies also had the opportunity to meet their counterparts".
The Ministry of National Defense also affirmed that "favorable conditions can be created" for holding, and such meetings on the sidelines of the dialogue were assessed as "beneficial" by the participants.
There is no complete list of the 20 countries that participated in the caucus, but Russia was not included.
Notably, officials from the US and Chinese intelligence agencies were present at this meeting despite the tensions between the two countries.
The US representative is Ms. Avril Haines - director of national intelligence, while the representative for India is Mr. Samant Goel - head of the Research and Analysis Wing, the agency that collects intelligence abroad. It is not clear who the representative of China is.
The US Embassy in Singapore said it had no information about the meeting, while the Chinese and Indian sides did not respond to any requests for comment.
According to Reuters, there is an unwritten rule between intelligence agencies that gives them an opportunity to discuss when formal diplomatic exchanges become difficult. The news agency also said the tone at the meeting was described as "cooperative, not confrontational".
According to TTO
