The agency quoted five people as saying that these meetings were organized by the Singapore government and held secretly in a separate location, concurrent with the security summit, for several years. These meetings were not previously disclosed.
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines attended the secret meeting on behalf of the United States, while China was among the other countries present, despite the state of tension between the two major powers.
According to Reuters, citing an Indian source, Samant Goel, director of India’s intelligence service, research and analysis wing, also attended the meeting.
“The meeting is an important part of the international parallel agenda,” said a person familiar with the talks. “Looking at the group of countries involved, this is not an intelligence gathering but rather a way to promote a deeper understanding of intent and instinct.”
“There is an unspoken code within the intelligence community that they can speak up when there is difficulty in communication and diplomacy. This is a very important factor in times of tension and the Singapore meeting helps to reinforce that,†did he declare.
The five sources who discussed the meetings declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
A spokesman for Singapore’s Ministry of Defense said that when attending the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, “participants, including senior intelligence agency officials, take the opportunity to meet their counterparts”. According to “Reuters”.
He added: “The Ministry of Defense in Singapore could facilitate some of these bilateral or multilateral meetings… The participants consider such meetings that take place on the sidelines of the (dialogue) to be useful.
The US Embassy in Singapore said it had no information about the meeting. The Chinese and Indian governments have not yet responded to requests for comment.
The person familiar with the meetings said that while few details were available, the issues of the war in Ukraine and transnational crimes came to the fore during those talks on Friday. Intelligence chiefs held an informal meeting on Thursday evening.
One of the sources said that no Russian representative was present. Volodymyr H. Havrilov, deputy defense minister of Ukraine’s Shangri-La Dialogue, but said he did not attend the intelligence meeting.
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