India, Britain to step up cyber security cooperation

New Delhi: Taking forward their strategic ties, India and Britain on Thursday agreed to boost cooperation in cyber security, including strengthening bilateral cooperation in tackling cyber crime. The two countries issued a joint statement on cooperation on cyber issues after talks between British Foreign Secretary William Hague and India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid here. [caption id=“attachment_519665” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Salman Khurshid. AFP[/caption] India and Britain, which upgraded their relations to a strategic partnership in 2004, have agreed that as part of the India-UK Strategic Dialogue, their foreign ministers would work together “on areas of common interest in the cyber domain”. The London Conference on Cyberspace last year was attended at the ministerial level by India, and following that, the two countries held their first structured dialogue on cooperation on cyber issues in October. “Both India and the United Kingdom share the core principles of liberty, transparency, freedom of expression and the rule of law which apply in cyberspace. We have a shared interest in enhancing our bilateral cooperation in this area,” the joint statement said. The two countries have agreed to conduct their cyber dialogue in enhancing international cooperation to reduce the risk of threats from cyberspace to international security; strengthening bilateral cooperation to tackle cyber crime, cooperating to identify and respond to threats from cyberspace and raise our mutual resilience, according to the statement. Other areas include “using existing cooperation between our universities and business communities to develop synergy in research and development on cyber issues; creating a global multilateral, democratic and transparent system of internet governance with participation of all stakeholders”. Both countries have agreed to conduct their Cyber Dialogue on a biannual basis to achieve these objectives. IANS