8 September 2016, 06:46 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The German foreign intelligence agency, BND, is indispensable for the nation’s security, Chancellor Angela Merkel assured the community at an event marking 60 years of its work on Monday.
"Information is the basis for an effective security policy," Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert quoted the chancellor as saying.
Merkel said the spy agency "must be proud of its work but stay open to criticism and fair monitoring of its activities." She also said the spotlight had fallen on cybersecurity after a rise in cyberattacks.
The German parliament passed a batch of laws in October to increase state control of the BND after it was implicated into helping US intelligence spy on EU and German officials. The agency will reportedly get its own satellite in the coming years to reduce its dependence on US infrastructure.
