Australia’s secret services said the country was facing “unprecedented” problems with espionage and foreign interference, without specifying which countries.
Australian Intelligence Director General Mike Burgess said in a speech late Tuesday that “multiple nations” and “sophisticated foreign adversaries” are behind these activities, against a backdrop of growing competition with China in the strategic and contentious region. of the Indo-Pacific. region.
“More Australians are subject to foreign espionage and interference than at any time in history. More hostile foreign intelligence services, more spies, more targets, more damage, more investigations,” from the Australian Security Information Organization. [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, ASIO, na sigla em inglês]Burgess said, naming military veterans, judges and journalists as some of the targets.
The official noted, without elaborating, that as a result of ASIO’s investigations, the agency detected and dismantled a large spy ring.
In addition, ASIO identified “multiple spies” from “multiple countries” among other operations last year, it added.
The head of Australia’s intelligence agency also said that attempts by secret services from two countries, which he did not identify, to physically attack two Australian residents critical of their regimes had been thwarted.
However, last week Australian Home Secretary Claire O’Neil publicly accused Iran of spying on an activist critical of the Tehran regime. O’Neil is also responsible for the Cyber Security portfolio.
In recent years, the Australian government has passed several laws to block alleged foreign interference in the country’s politics and economy, accusing China of being behind cyberattacks on universities and government agencies and suspected funding of some politicians.
Since coming to power in May 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has tried to reach out to Beijing, the country’s main trading partner, to resolve the many differences between the two nations.
At the same time, Canberra is seeking to maintain influence with long-allied Pacific island nations in the face of Beijing’s push into the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
To counter Chinese influence, Australia signed the AUKUS defense pact with the United States and the United Kingdom in September 2021, which includes Canberra’s acquisition of nuclear submarines.
Source: TSF
