On April 16-17, the 10th meeting of the BRICS Working Group on Security in the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) was held in Moscow.
The event was opened by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S. V. Vershinin. In his speech, he welcomed the new members – the delegations of Egypt, Iran, UAE and Ethiopia participated in the meeting for the first time. He emphasized the growing importance of international information security (IIS) issues in the BRICS agenda. He noted the special role of the association in building an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful digital environment based on the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in the internal affairs of states. He pointed out the closeness of the approaches of our states to the issues of ensuring equal, non-discriminatory access of countries to modern ICTs.
The meeting confirmed the mutual interest of all the participants of the group in strengthening cooperation in the sphere of IIB. An important practical result of the work was the decision to establish a register of BRICS contact points for the exchange of information on computer attacks/incidents in the expanded membership. The partners received a positive response to the Russian proposals on strengthening the regulatory and legal framework for cooperation, as well as on launching a dialog through the scientific and academic community.
During the event, the delegations agreed to continue close cooperation on all aspects of IIB at multilateral platforms. They reaffirmed their commitment to the exclusively peaceful use of ICTs, to prevent militarization of information space, to prevent conflicts in it, and to overcome the digital divide. They agreed to jointly promote these principles in the UN, in particular, in the Open-Ended Working Group on IIB and the Ad Hoc Committee for the elaboration of a universal convention on combating information crime.
The next meeting of the BRICS Working Group will be held in 2025 under the chairmanship of Brazil.
