SYDNEY: Australia’s spy chief has singled out Russia as an “aggressive espionage threat,” saying several Moscow-linked intelligence officers have been caught and expelled in recent years.
Intelligence boss Mike Burgess used a speech on Thursday night to warn of the mounting threat posed by foreign actors such as Russia and China.
Burgess said 24 major espionage operations had been dismantled since 2022 — more than the previous eight years combined.
“A new iteration of great power competition is driving a relentless hunger for strategic advantage and an insatiable appetite for inside information,” he said.
“Russia remains a persistent and aggressive espionage threat,” added Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization.
Without providing details, Burgess said a number of Russian spies had been expelled from Australia in recent years.
He also mentioned China and Iran as nations actively trying to pilfer classified information.
“You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets,” he said.
Repeating a warning sounded earlier this year, Burgess said foreign actors were targeting Australia’s fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program.
Australia plans to deploy stealthy nuclear-powered submarines in a pact with the United States and Britain known as AUKUS.
“In particular, we are seeing foreign intelligence services taking a very unhealthy interest in AUKUS and its associated capabilities,” said Burgess.
Australian police last year charged a married Russian-born couple with spying for Moscow.
The couple — accused of trying to steal military secrets — had lived in Australia for more than 10 years.
Australia’s spy chief warns of ‘aggressive espionage threat’ from Russia
https://arab.news/8hrja
Australia’s spy chief warns of ‘aggressive espionage threat’ from Russia
- Russia remains a persistent and aggressive espionage threat, intelligence boss Mike Burgess said in a speech
- Burgess said 24 major espionage operations had been dismantled since 2022 — more than the previous eight years combined
Bolivia and Israel to restore ties severed over the war in Gaza
- Paz's government eased visa restrictions on American and Israeli travelers last month
- The Bolivian foreign ministry said its top diplomat would meet his Israeli counterpart in Washington later Tuesday to discuss the revival of bilateral ties
LA PAZ, Bolivia: Bolivia's new right-wing government said Tuesday that it would restore diplomatic relations with Israel, the latest sign of the dramatic geopolitical realignment underway in the South American country that was once among the most vocal critics of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
The Bolivian foreign ministry said its top diplomat would meet his Israeli counterpart in Washington later Tuesday to discuss the revival of bilateral ties, which Bolivia's previous left-wing government severed two years ago over Israel's devastating campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Bolivia said the effort came as part of a new foreign policy strategy under conservative President Rodrigo Paz aimed at “rebuilding Bolivia's international prestige, opening new economic opportunities and strengthening alliances that directly benefit the country and our citizens abroad."
Bolivian Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo is in the midst of a whirlwind trip to Washington for meetings with American officials as his government works to warm long-chilly relations with the United States and unravel nearly two decades of hard-line, anti-Western policies under the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party that left Bolivia economically isolated and diplomatically allied with China, Russia and Venezuela.
Paz's government eased visa restrictions on American and Israeli travelers last month.
In announcing his expected meeting with Aramayo on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar thanked Bolivia for scrapping Israeli visa controls and said he spoke to Paz after the center-right senator's Oct. 19 election victory to express “Israel’s desire to open a new chapter” in relations with Bolivia.
Paz entered office last month, ending the dominance of the MAS party founded by Evo Morales, the charismatic former coca-growing union leader who became Bolivia's first Indigenous president in 2006. Not long after taking power, Morales sent Israel's ambassador packing and cozied up to Iran over their shared enmity toward the U.S. and Israel.
When protests over Morales' disputed 2019 reelection prompted him to resign under pressure from the military, a right-wing interim government took over and restored full diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Israel as it sought to undo many of Morales’ popular policies.
But 2020 elections brought the MAS party back to power with the presidency of Luis Arce, who in 2023 once again cut ties with Israel in protest over its military actions in Gaza.
Other left-wing Latin American countries, like Chile and Colombia, soon made similar moves, recalling their ambassadors and joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the United Nations’ highest judicial body.
