The Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6 (for Military Intelligence, Section 6, its World War I designation), is the foreign intelligence agency of the United Kingdom. Founded in 1909, MI6 is the external counterpart of the domestic intelligence agency MI5, and only in 1994 was MI6's existence officially acknowledged, following years of several major British intelligence operations during World War II and the Cold War. With its motto being Semper Occultus ("Always Secret"), MI6's director John Sawers gave the first public speech in the organization's history in late 2010 when he said that the need for secrecy was neccessary for the security of Britain.