BIMSTEC Expert Group on Cyber Security Cooperation

Table of Contents

BIMSTEC- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

The National Security Council Secretariat, Government of India is organizing a two day Meeting of the BIMSTEC Expert Group on Cyber Security Cooperation on 14-15 July 2022 in New Delhi.

About: The BIMSTEC Expert Group on Cyber Security Cooperation Meeting is based on the agreement made during the meeting of the BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs held at Bangkok in March 2019.
Mandate: the BIMSTEC Expert Group will formulate an Action plan to deal with Cyber Security challenges in the BIMSTEC Region.
Chairperson: The in-person BIMSTEC Expert Group on Cyber Security meeting is being chaired by the Indian National Cyber Security Coordinator Lt General Rajesh Pant.
Participation:
- India as a lead Country for Security Sector in BIMSTEC forum has taken the initiative to organize this meeting on Cyber Security Cooperation and develop a Plan of Action on cyber security.
- The BIMSTEC Member States are being represented by the senior officials of their respective Government organisations which deals with cyber security and incident response.

Key Objective: The main objective of this BIMSTEC Expert Group meeting is to formulate the Action Plan.
- It will bolster coordination and collaboration amongst the BIMSTEC Member States for strengthening Cyber Security in the use of ICTs.
Scope: This Action plan will cover the mechanisms for-
- The exchanges of cyber related information, cybercrime,
- Protection of critical information infrastructures,
- Cyber incident response and
- International developments related to cyber norms.
Implementation: The Action Plan has been proposed to be implemented within the time frame of 5 years after which the Experts Group on Cyber Security will review the Action Plan.

The BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 to provide a unique link between South and South-East Asia with 5 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia.
Cooperative areas: The countries came together as one platform for cooperation in 14 key economic and social sectors of the economy.
- Initially, six sectors- trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries were included for sectoral cooperation which was later expanded to 14 areas of cooperation.
BIMSTEC Headquarter: BIMSTEC headquarters at Kathmandu, Nepal.
BIMSTEC New Secretary General: Tenzin Lekphell.
Objective: To pursue mutual trade, connectivity, and cultural, technical, and economic development in the region.
BIMSTEC 2022 Summit: The 5th BIMSTEC Summit was hosted in virtual mode by Sri Lanka, the current chair of BIMSTEC.
- BIMSTEC 2022 Theme: The 5th BIMSTEC Summit’s theme is “Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, Healthy People”.