The heads of the U.S. and U.K. foreign intelligence agencies weighed in with remarks on the threat from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea and the ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East in a first-ever joint public appearance Saturday in London.

CIA head William Burns and his MI6 counterpart Richard Moore met at the Financial Times (FT) Weekend Festival at Kenwood House for the discussion — which the FT live-streamed. Roula Khalaf, the FT editor who moderated the discussion, termed it a “mystery session.”

The CIA had no better foreign partner in the world than the MI6, Burns said, with Moore highlighting the “high level of trust” between both agencies.

“I don’t think there’s been a better example of the significance of our partnership than the run-up to the war in Ukraine,” Burns said.

Both agencies took the authorized “novel approach” of declassifying some intelligence regarding Putin’s planned invasion at the time, “as a way of denying Putin the false narratives that I have watched him for so many years employ in the past,” Burns explained.

The approach “put Putin in the unaccustomed and uncomfortable position of being on the wrong foot,” he added.

Moore said there was “a lot of pragmatic cooperation” between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — evidenced “sadly, on the battlefield in Ukraine” by the presence of North Korean weaponry, Iranian drones and Chinese dual-use technology. Unlike the CIA-MI6 relationship, the relationship between the four countries was based on a “rather dark and more pragmatic basis,” he added.

The alliance between the four countries is “nonetheless troubling” and imposes danger not only on innocent Ukrainian civilians but also to “friends and partners in the Middle East,” according to Burns.

“Much as Russia chafed at the idea of being the junior partner of the United States after the end of the Cold War, it’s a safe prediction that, over time, Russians are going to chafe at being the junior partner of China, too,” Burns said.

The first time they have ever appeared together on stage… CIA director Bill Burns and MI6 chief Richard Moore in conversation with FT editor Roula Khalaf live at #ftweekendfestival and discussing Gaza, Russia, Ukraine, China, AI in intelligence – and their favourite spy gadget… pic.twitter.com/fNxuUQ65iL

— Financial Times (@FT) September 7, 2024

China has yet to offer direct military assistance to Russia in the latter’s war against Ukraine “but we see lots of things just short of that,” Burns said.

“Should Iran ship ballistic missiles of whatever kind—close-range, or other kinds—[to Russia], it would be a dramatic escalation of the nature of that defense partnership,” Burns added.

Pyongyang “is already providing short-range ballistic missiles” to Moscow for use against Ukraine, according to Burns. (RELATED: ‘Authoritarian Gas Attendant’: Gov. DeSantis Calls For Biden, Europe To ‘Hit Putin Where It Counts)

Western support for Ukraine is “totally sustainable” even though “it’s really difficult, it’s hard, particularly in eastern Ukraine” where the “attritional warfare” rages on with Putin’s ongoing “attritional, Pyrrhic campaign of taking village by village,” Moore said.

Moore described the Ukrainian forces’ incursion into Russia’s Kursk region as “typically audacious and bold.”

Burns hailed the Kursk offensive as “a significant tactical achievement” boosting Ukraine’s morale and exposing some of Russia’s vulnerabilities. (RELATED: Zelenskyy Says It’s ‘Wrong’ That US, West Won’t Let Ukraine Use Weapons To Strike Deep Inside Russia)

Putin, however, is not on his last legs in the war, nor is his grip on power at home necessarily weakening, Burns warned. “Just don’t ever confuse a tight grip with a stable grip,” Moore added.

On Russia’s “reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe,” Russian intelligence services “have gone a bit feral,” Moore said.

The head of the U.S. Army’s Northern Command said that Russia had more spies in Mexico than anywhere else globally, according to Khalaf. In response, Burns said the CIA and domestic American law enforcement agencies are “very sharply focused” on investigating the possibility that Russia was facilitating illegal immigration into the US via Mexico to sabotage the U.S.

On Gaza, Burns said the U.S. was working very hard with Egypt and Qatar to refine the White House’s three-phase framework entailing hostage-prisoner swaps, a permanent ceasefire, and the reconstruction of Gaza, into “a good-enough proposal.” Up to 90% of the text is agreed to but oftentimes the remaining 10% “is the hardest part to do.”