Donald Trump’s rehabilitation of US-Russia relations has forced allies to consider scaling back intelligence, it has been claimed.
Members of the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance and nations including Saudi Arabia and Israel are becoming increasingly wary about what to share with the White House.
An alliance between Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and America was formalised in the post-World War II era and has since transformed into a robust global surveillance mechanism since then.
Its members describe it as the world’s most significant intelligence service and say it is their nation’s most important such partnership.
This means any fracture of trust between the five could upend geopolitics.
No decision on reversing this alliance has been made – but members are understood to be looking at ways to revise current protocols.
‘Those discussions are already happening,’ said an NBC source with direct knowledge of the discussions.
The extent of a US policy change toward Russia remains …