Russia Plans to Establish Cyber General Assembly in UN

MOSCOW – Moscow wants the United Nations’ open-ended working group (OEWG) on cyber security to become a “cyber General Assembly” of the organization, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with TASS.

“An open-ended working group (OEWG) on international cyber security is to be launched within the United Nations this year at Russia’s initiative,” he said. “We see it as a kind of ‘cyber General Assembly’ where all the states, despite the level of their technical development, will take part in discussions on this topic on the basis of equality.”

“The group’s agenda is quite rich. It includes the entire spectrum of issues of international information security, from further work on the rules of conduct to steps to bridge the digital gap,” he noted.

He recalled that the United Nations General Assembly last year had approved, at Russia’s initiative, the initial list of rule of responsible conduct in information space. “These rules won support of the majority of the United Nations member states, but, regrettably, for the Western nations which seem to be under the illusion that they will be able to impose their cyber dictatorship on the world,” the senior Russian diplomat stressed, adding that in 2018 the General Assembly also approved Russia’s idea of a wide political discussion on topics of countering cyber crimes.

“So, it is wrong to say that there is little progress in the United Nations. Progress is much more visible now than ever before,” he added.

At the same time, he noted that multilateral efforts should be backed at the bilateral level. “We have intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in this sphere with many countries. Top-level declaration have been signed with a number of states. In 2018, we signed four such documents.

We also have multilateral agreements within the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.

He stressed that Moscow is open for dialogue on cyber security with countries of both the East and the West. “Interest to cooperation with Russia on international cyber security is high in the world. If our partners are interested in cooperation we will always support it,” he added.

TASS

R.S