A British vote to leave the EU next month could make the nation more vulnerable to militant attacks and cause instability across the continent, two former senior British intelligence officials said.
John Sawers, who stepped down as head of the MI6 foreign intelligence service in 2014, and Jonathan Evans, who led the MI5 domestic spy agency until three years ago, said that a British exit could weaken intelligence-sharing between Britain and neighboring countries.
“Counterterrorism is a team game, and the EU is the best framework available — no country can succeed on its own,” they wrote in an article for the Sunday Times newspaper.
National security has become a key area of contention between rival campaigners ahead of the June 23 vote, particularly in the light of Islamic State group attacks in Paris and Brussels.
Those wanting Britain to leave the 28-member bloc said an exit would enable the nation to have greater control over its borders. Those backing membership, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, said the EU helps to coordinate intelligence-sharing.
Sawers and Evans said modern intelligence work relied on the sharing of large data-sets and that Britain could be restricted in the information it received if it was no longer part of the bloc.
The two men, who do not often speak out on national matters, said their concerns about the vote went beyond Britain’s security and that the removal of one of Europe’s main military powers could unsettle the EU itself.
“If the UK were to withdraw from the EU, the destabilizing effect on the EU itself — already beset with economic difficulties, the migration crisis and a resurgent Russia — could be profound,” they wrote. “Those who are enemies of democracy would rejoice. In our judgment, there is a real risk that such a destabilization could, in time, lead to the fragmentation of the EU and the return of instability on the continent.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing