[Australia]: Message to the United States and United Kingdom [SEC=TOP SECRET]

[Owen]

​

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET (ENCRYPTED)​

22 April 2004

Dear the United States Director of National Intelligence and the United Kingdom Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, The National Security Committee of Cabinet has asked me to inform relevant international partners of developments in regards to Thailand and Australia. Recently the relationship between Thailand and Australia reached a new low over a tweet from the National Intelligence Agency of Thailand accusing an Australian Minister of the Crown as engaging in a misinformation campaign. The Australian Government took a simple protest over this as being not relevant to Thailand's security, an internal affairs matter for Australia and something which lacked professionalism. I am told by the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the Thai response continually brought up the internal state of the Australian economy that the Minister and his Thai counterpart needed to discuss, to which the Minister refrained from discussing it as being unprofessional and not relevant to the bilateral relationship. The Thai response accused the Australian Government of lacking transparency, not building a relationship on facts and has eventually spiralled into the Thai Government withdrawing their Ambassador to Australia, accusing the Australian Government of violating Thailand's Constitution and sovereignty and worst of all, withdrawing any recognition of Australia's sovereignty, which we see as an extremely dangerous step. The Australian Government has refrained from any action of the equivalence and maintains its embassy in Bangkok. I won't continue to bore you with the political situation, but the response of the Thai Government, we believe, has more sinister connotations. The rapid speed to which the relationship has broken down and the proportions to which the Thai Government has blown this matter out of from a simple diplomatic communique urging them to get one of their agencies to withdraw a media release is astonishing. We have never seen anything quite like it. We are aware that Thailand has had its fair share of failing to interact in a professional manner on the world stage, but we were convinced that the situation within Thailand was changing for the better. I'm here to tell you that the Australian Government, in the span of less than 48 hours, no longer believes that to be the case. We believe that Thailand is deliberately blowing this out of proportions to achieve several aims: 1. To use the matter as a reason to break down the relationship between Australia and Thailand without it being seen like it was done with no reason whatsoever. 2. To use the matter to destroy Australia's reputation on the global stage and to get other nations to consider Australia as a pariah state. What they then intend to do from there is questionable. They may turn Australia into a pariah state so much that it forces Australia to align itself fully within the sphere of influence of Thailand, away from traditional western allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom rather than the cordial but towing both lines relationship it was prior to 48 hours ago. We are also not ruling out either that Thailand intends to use the breakdown of this relationship as a reason to threaten Australia's national security, through either economic sanctions or direct military action. Thailand does not like that Australia maintains a close eye on them and the region, that we are a western-aligned country, that we do it with full regard for our own national interests and we ultimately believe they see Australia as more of a liability than an asset. This message is not to ask for any diplomatic support, that is not my job, but it is to deliver a full and frank assessment of the intelligence picture and where we believe Thailand's current aims and strategic direction is heading in terms of regional security. In other words, similar to what it was a year ago. Yours sincerely, Peter Varghese.

Robert Marsden Hope Building, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
UNOFFICIAL	No Business Impact	No damage. This information does not form part of official duty.
OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Odinson Jamie

 

[Jamie]

UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
Security Classification: TOP SECRET

To: Peter Varghese Owen
Cc: United States Director of National Intelligence Odinson
Subject: Re: Thailand

Dear Mr Varghese,

Thank you for providing this assessment and informing us of the events unfolding, I am aware of certain situations that have occurred over the last few years regarding Thailand and unfortunately it's not an isolated incident. However, if it offers any reassurance, the actions of the Thai Government in recent years has led to mistrust and a cautious approach to anything they are involved in. Therefore, I am confident that any issues between Thailand and Australia will not impact the reputation your country has on a global stage. Our intelligence also suggests that despite how it may appear, Thailand does not have the strength or the coordination to carry out any form of action that would hinder the independence of Australia or any other state or territory.

We suspect their movements, especially those that trigger such responses, are in play to test how countries are responding to their presence in order to gather intelligence or to force a response that would see Thailand as the victim. Although not requested, my advice would be to continue to monitor the situation but refrain from any retaliation that could be deemed as an escalation to prevent it been used against you.

I hope this offers you some reassurance, please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind Regards,
Richard Dearlove