Fists of fury: ASIS spy chief’s Duterte alliance

The head of ASIS has emerged from the shadows for a ‘highly unusual­’ meeting with the Philippines President.

ASIS director-general Nick Warner joins Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in his signature gesture at the Malacanang Palace, in Manila. Picture: Albert Alcain / Presidential Photo

The head of Australia’s foreign spy agency has emerged from the shadows for a “highly unusual­” meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and copied his signature fist-pump gesture in a sign of solidary amid increasing­ concerns about Islamic State’s rise in the region.

The director-general of the Aust­ralian Secret Intelligence Service, Nick Warner, who rarely makes public appearances, allowed­ part of the meeting to be filmed and posed alongside Mr Duterte, as Australia moves to counter Islamic State’s hold on Marawi.

Mr Warner’s display with Mr Duterte, who gained international notoriety as he unleashed a war on drugs held ­responsible for the extrajudicial deaths of thousands in The Philippines, comes as ­Australia has sent surveillance ­aircraft to spy on the jihadists ­who are besieged in the southern city.

ASIS has been one of Australia’s most covert organisations, ­established by the Menzies admin­istration in 1952 but remaining secret within the government until 1972. Its mission is to “protect and promote Australia’s vital interests through the provision of unique foreign intelligence servic­es as directed by the Australian government’’, but it was not until 2012 that Mr Warner delivered ASIS’s first public speech.

Mr Duterte was accompanied at the meeting by his Foreign Secretary, Alan Peter Cayetano, Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana and presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.

Mr Warner was joined by Australian ambassador to The Philippines Amanda Gorely and coun­sell­or Caroline Fogarty. Since the conflict in Marawi City began in May, 129 Filipino troops and 45 ­civilians have been killed, alongside 584 members of the ISIS-linked Maute group, who have occupied the city.

Philippines security analyst Richard Heydarian said the ­picture of the meeting at the Mala­canang Palace in Manila “speaks volumes” to the ­importance that Mr Duterte now placed on the strat­egic relationship with Australia, as he struggles to cope with the protracted ISIS conflict in Mindanao.

Former defence intelligence official John Blaxland said Mr Warner’s appearance was “highly unusual” but indicated how importan­t co-operation with the Duterte government had become because of the protracted Marawi conflict. “Evidently, the government is so concerned that it is prepared to ‘out’ Warner for the occasion and play along with the machismo of ‘Duterte Harry’,” Professor Blaxland said.

Dr Heydarian said Australia was among the “very few Western countries that has normal, if not cordial, relations with Duterte­”, having managed to balance its human rights concerns over his murderous war on drugs with its mining interests in Mindanao and concerns that the Islamic­ State conflict in Mindanao province could spill over into Southeast Asia.

“Duterte realises that Australia can be very helpful. It is part of the Five Eyes (intelligence community), it has good intelligence co-operation with Indonesia and other regional neighbours, so could provide a bigger picture analysis of ISIS movements across the region,” said Dr Heydarian, a Manila-based political science professor and author of The Rise of Duterte.

“Australia is a country Duterte would prefer to rely on than the US. We’ve never really had a problem with Australia, whereas with the US there is awkwardness. Plus the legal framework is already there.”

Australia and the US are the only two countries with which The Philippines has signed a defenc­e treaty, or status of forces agreement, but Mr Duterte has tried to distance his government from the Trump administration.

Mr Lorenzana said yesterday Mr Warner’s visit was to “see how the Australian effort is going” in Marawi. “No other assist­ance beyond­ the P3s (Orion surveillance planes)” was offered and there were “no new requests from us ­either”.

Canberra has a stake in ensuring the siege of Marawi City by Islam­ic State-affiliate­d militants did not spill over into Southeast Asia, where there are ongoing concerns of ISIS-inspired violence in Malaysia and Indonesia, and that Mindanao province did not become a base from which ISIS could launch terror attacks.