WARSAW: Nato opened a counter-espionage hub in Poland on Thursday aimed at expanding the alliance’s intelligence-gathering capabilities amid tensions with Russia, a senior Polish official said on Thursday.

The new facility in the southern city of Krakow is focused on “developing the basic norms, principles and activities” for the spy agencies of Nato allies, Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said during opening ceremonies at the venue attended by his Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak counterparts.

Espionage now “covers all areas of life”, affecting the military and critical civilian infrastructure via both cyber-tools and conventional spying, Macierewicz added, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

Nato’s Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence was formally endorsed in 2015 at talks in the alliance’s Allied Command Transformation facility in Norfolk, Virginia. The new venue comes as Nato’s relations with Russia have hit their lowest point since the Cold War over the conflict in Ukraine, leading to a spike in spying claims.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017