The ‘Five Eyes’ is an alliance comprising of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain and the US. It is an international agreement under which this these five countries cooperates and share signals intelligence, military intelligence, and human intelligence.
With an eye on China, and as part of its effort to maintain peace and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, a top Congressional committee has sought to bring three democratic countries of the region — India, Japan and South Korea — at par with its ‘Five Eyes’ for intelligence sharing.
The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region, comprising the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea.
“The committee under the Secretary of Defence for Intelligence, in coordination with ODNI (Office of Director of National Intelligence), will provide a briefing to the congressional intelligence and defence committees within 60 days of enactment of the Act, on the benefits, challenges, and risks of broadening the information-sharing mechanisms between India, Japan, the Republic of Korea (or South Korea), and the ‘Five Eyes’ allies,”
Importance for the Indo – Pacific Region
India, the U.S. and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China’s rising military maneuvering in the region. China has been trying to expand its military presence in the Indo-Pacific, which is a biogeographic region, comprising the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the sea.
China purposely blurs the distinction between its military and civilian activities through its policy of “military-civilian fusion,” which compounds the risks of diversion of United States technology to the Chinese military.
Concluding that the US currently lacks a comprehensive policy and the tools needed to address this problem, the committee said that China exploits weaknesses in existing US mechanisms aimed at preventing dangerous technology transfers, including the export control system.