Speech by Sir Richard Moore, Chief of SIS, 29 November 2024

Sir Richard Moore, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, discussed the UK-France intelligence relationship and the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale

Mon cher collègue Nicolas Lerner, le Directeur Générale de la sécurité extérieure,

Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs,

Thank you Ambassador, Menna, to you and your team for hosting this splendid occasion, and to my dear friend and colleague Nicolas for his very kind words of introduction.

I’m not sure I can compete with you on popular culture so I’m going to leave that to one side.

As Chief of MI6, I tend to limit my public interventions to occasions when I believe I can contribute to public understanding of specific events.

But today, I want to talk about something else, the bigger picture if you like. I want to take this opportunity to highlight the hidden strengths of our democracies, the deep alliances built on shared values and forged in our collective work to maintain peace, freedom, and open societies.

Back in September, the Director of the CIA, Bill Burns, and I talked about Britain and America’s special relationship.

And I am here in Paris to highlight another of our vital partnerships: with France and the DGSE. Britain and France; Britain and the United States. Nations built on the same ideals, creating partnerships through friendship, joint endeavour and historic achievement, transcending the generations.

I believe these partnerships are the secret weapon of free nations, never more valuable than today.

And it was that same insight which inspired the Entente Cordiale 120 years ago this year, when Britain and France resolved to unite our destinies, and stand together against common treats.

As early as 1912, the first Chief of MI6, Mansfield Cumming, made his first ever visit to a foreign partner, by coming to France to meet the Deuxième Bureau, to compare insights on German capabilities and intentions.