UK security service officials have sought assurances on the way intelligence is being used and disseminated by US counterparts amid growing concern over President Donald Trump’s shifting foreign policy.
The i Paper has been told that informal discussions have taken place between UK and US officials in order to steady nerves and maintain a long-standing agreement of intelligence sharing, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks.
One official said there is a concern that sensitive information will be used as a negotiating tool by the US President or passed inadvertently during negotiations with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“It comes down to the chiefs of both sides who will be talking about what you do and do not brief Trump,” they said. “The concern is that he will say something he shouldn’t.”
A US intelligence official confirming the discussions emphasised that talks were “strictly informal” and aimed at keeping vital communications lines open during a time of heightened uncertainty.
Although Thursday’s meeting between Keir Starmer and the US President has been widely regarded as a success in bolstering the special relationship between the two countries, the unpredictable nature of the evolving Trump administration is causing concern.
Earlier this week, it was reported that a senior White House official suggested removing Canada from the vital Five Eyes Western intelligence alliance as Trump’s threatens to increase tariffs on the country and annex it as the 51st state.
The Five Eyes alliance, which also includes the UK, Australia and New Zealand, is a beacon of unity on defence for the West against global adversaries that was established in 1941. It allows member nations to share highly-classified intelligence to identify and combat national security threats from terrorism to cyber crime.
Peter Navarro, one of the US president’s closest advisers, was reported to be pushing for the expulsion of Canada from what has been described as “by far the most successful intelligence-sharing arrangement in world history”.
Although Navarro later rowed back against these suggestions, the very fact it might have been considered sent shockwaves through intelligence circles.
A former senior US intelligence official said the events of the last few days, notably the rejection of long-term security support for Ukraine, will leave members of the Five Eyes alliance “evaluating the structure of their relationship with the US”.
They said: “Our relationship with Canada and the UK is closely tied to the entire Nato structure, and underpins decades of opposition to Soviet, and then Russian, expansion and aggression.
“The apparent embrace of Russia and rejection of Ukraine, and the flat-out lie concerning the origins of the Ukraine conflict will undoubtedly shake up this critical relationship. The fundamental questions – can we be trusted? Are we an ally?”
A second US intelligence official said if they were working for UK intelligence, they would be withholding “anything sensitive” from the current administration. They added: “Most of the US/UK information sharing is case specific and comes down to personal relationships. If the UK is just responding to a request for subscriber information to a phone number, for example, I don’t see things like that changing. But, sadly anything beyond routine I wouldn’t share.”
Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing collaboration between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that has been a stalwart of national security for the best part of a century.
Established in the aftermath of the Second World War, the partnership initially included only the UK and the US before expanding to include Canada, Australia and New Zealand to form one of the most complex and far-reaching alliances in Western history.
The agreement allows for the secure transfer of classified and non-classified information from multiple sources, including intercepted communications, military intelligence and geospatial data.
There are a number of Five Eyes listening posts across the globe including the Waihopai Station in New Zealand, Ayios Nikolaos Station in Cyprus and Pine Gap in Australia. The latter is a CIA-led satellite station critical for collecting intelligence on China.
The agreement has forged the basis for the “special relationship” between the UK and US and is signified by a large cohort of embedded US National Security Agency officials working at the UK Government Communications Headquarters to encourage a deep co-operation on sharing of signals intelligence.
Fears that US intelligence co-operation could be seen as a bargaining chip in any trade negotiations follows from general disquiet over a number of Trump appointees to key security positions.
In particular, the choice of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) – a role that involves preparing daily intelligence briefings for the president and overseeing all 18 US intelligence agencies – increased fears around intelligence sharing with the US.
Gabbard, a former US army reservist who served in Iraq, was seen as a shock choice as she has no experience in intelligence and has spoken about Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” regarding Ukraine.
Matthew Dunn, a former MI6 intelligence officer, said that team Trump’s threatening of security arrangements with Canada will force the UK and other to treat the US with caution to protect sensitive information.
“Regardless as to whether notion of US expelling Canada is merely bluster, the matter isn’t in the hands of US,” he said. “The UK and others will already be severely shrinking meaningful intelligence sharing with bodies such as the CIA and NSA [National Security Agency].”
Dunn said the safety of sources run by UK intelligence will be a “major concern”, forcing officers to seek assurances from that their agent’s intelligence isn’t fed to US officials.
“Trust between likes of MI6 and CIA will now be the worst ever,” he added. “Solid working relationships between intelligence officers in both agencies will be impossible due to the new US regime.”
As part of intelligence agreements, a large contingent of officials from the NSA are embedded in the UK Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ). Dunn claims that fracturing relations between the two countries could lead to the US contingencies needing to temporarily leave the spy headquarters in Cheltenham.
A Government spokesperson said any talk of NSA staff being asked to leave GCHQ was “complete nonsense”.
They said: “The UK/US intelligence sharing relationship has strengthened the security of both nations for many decades and our co-operation with our American partners will continue under the new US administration.”
A senior former GCHQ official affirmed that there would be professionals working behind the scenes to make sure, as ever, that political events did not impact the long-standing vital security relationship between UK and US agencies.
John Foreman, the UK’s defence attache to Moscow until 2022, said Starmer will need to keep setting out the “mutual benefit” of the existing intelligence and defence relationship to convince Trump that a deeper alliance will increase the national security of both nations.
“The whole system depends on trust and has done since the war,” he said. “If that breaks down it will affect both UK and US national security – the relationship goes both ways and Europe can’t replace it.”
The US embassy in London was approached for comment.
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