What is the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance? | Explained

On the India-Canada diplomatic row, check out The Hindu explainer on the Five Eyes. What is the alliance and how does its work.

The story so far: The recent allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linking the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil to the Indian government has put the spotlight on the intelligence-sharing alliance ‘Five Eyes’ (or FVEY), which is believed to have provided the information that “helped” Canada.

In an interview with Canadian CTV News network last week, U.S. Ambassador David Cohen confirmed that there was “shared intelligence among ‘Five Eyes’ partners that helped lead Canada” to accuse India of “possible” involvement in the killing of the Khalistani separatist. The interview was followed by a report in the New York Times on Saturday which said the United States had provided Canada with intelligence but definitive communications intercepted by Ottawa led Mr. Trudeau to accuse India of orchestrating the plot.

“In the aftermath of the killing, U.S. intelligence agencies offered their Canadian counterparts context that helped Canada conclude that India had been involved,” the NYT reported, quoting sources.

Also Read | Canada shared evidence of ‘credible allegations’ on Nijjar’s killing with India ‘many weeks ago’, seeks to establish facts: PM Trudeau

The ‘Five Eyes’ is a multilateral intelligence-sharing network shared by over 20 different agencies of five English-speaking countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.  It is both surveillance-based and signals intelligence (SIGINT). Intelligence documents shared between the member countries are classified ‘Secret—AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only,’ which gave the group its title ‘Five Eyes.’

The alliance between the U.S. and the U.K. evolved around the Second World War to counter the Cold War Soviet threat. The two countries, which had successfully deciphered German and Japanese codes during the World War, forged a collaboration to share intelligence related to signals such as radio, satellite and internet communications. In the aftermath of the war in 1946, the alliance was formalised through an agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence. 

The treaty called the British-U.S. Communication Intelligence Agreement, or BRUSA (now known as the UKUSA Agreement), was signed between the State-Army-Navy Communication Intelligence Board (STANCIB) of the U.S. and the London Signal Intelligence Board (SIGINT) of Britain. Its scope was limited to “communication intelligence matters only” related to “unrestricted” exchange of intelligence products in six areas: collection of traffic; acquisition of communication documents and equipment; traffic analysis; cryptanalysis; decryption and translation; and acquisition of information regarding communication organisations, practices, procedures, and equipment. The arrangement was later extended to ‘second party’ countries —Canada joined in 1948, while Australia and New Zealand became part of the alliance in 1956.