The Indian government recently hosted the Second Meeting of the BIMSTEC Expert Group on Cyber Security Cooperation in New Delhi when the participants discussed the formulation of Action Plan to secure more secure and resilient cyberspace in the region.  

The meeting was held on January 21 in New Delhi.

 The First BIMSTEC Experts Group Meeting on Cyber Security was also hosted by India in 2022 in New Delhi.

What was the main objective of the meeting?

As per an Indian government released statement, the main objective of this BIMSTEC Expert Group meeting is to formulate the Action Plan which will bolster coordination and collaboration amongst the BIMSTEC Member States for strengthening the Cyber Security in the use of ICTs.

"This Action Plan will cover the mechanisms for the exchange of cyber related information, cybercrime, protection of critical information infrastructures, cyber incident response and international developments related to cyber norms," the release said.

This Action Plan has been proposed to be implemented within the time frame of 5 years.

Some significant exchanges have taken place during the second meeting, which are building BIMSTEC CERT-TO-CERT cooperation mechanism, Cybercrime Cooperation Framework amongst the Law Enforcement agencies and capacity building programmes on cyber security in the region.

Among various presentations, India also presented about its Initiatives of Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) on “Cyber Hygiene for school children”.

"The Meeting agreed that implementation of the Action Plan will be a major step towards strengthening cyber security cooperation in BIMSTEC.  By taking these steps, BIMSTEC countries can work together to create a more secure and resilient cyber space in the region," the government statement said.