The current Indian Government has continually offered significant strategic thrust to cybersecurity and related issues. In November 2015 alone, India established multiple collaborative partnerships that for cooperation in cybersecurity with various countries. This is a welcome move for the sector which continually presents advanced security challenges. There is a demonstrated interest in addressing this serious contemporary concern. In addition, efforts are being made to establish extensive cybersecurity cooperation to ensure protected cyber networks. The latest bilateral ties established by India to boost cybersecurity cooperation are elucidated below.

India and UK signed a first of its kind joint statement that will enable them to collaborate and jointly educate and train its cybersecurity professionals. Together, the countries are also slated to establish a cybersecurity training centre to enable dialogue and exchange of expertise. Additionally, the UK will also help setup a new cybercrime unit in India. This joint statement released after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK closely follows the visit of UK’s first cybersecurity delegation to India in October 2015.

For the first time, India and China have also decided to establish ministerial mechanisms to effectively tackle transnational crime and specifically delineated cybercrime cooperation as a measure to boost security cooperation between the countries. The new high-level mechanism will be established under the home ministries of both the countries and will result in information exchange, law enforcement and technical capacity building to jointly combat cybercriminal activity. An official bilateral document endorsing this new security collaboration is yet to be signed.

A joint statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Malaysian counterpart released this week, revealed that their delegation-level consultations between the countries had resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening cooperation on cybersecurity. As this MoU was signed between Indian Computer Emergency Team (CERT-IN) and CyberSecurity Malaysia (national cybersecurity agency), closer cooperation in cyber-policy evolution, technological expertise exchange and incident management can be expected.

Later in the same week, a similar agreement for bilateral cooperation and collaboration in cybersecurity measures was signed between CERT-IN and SingCERT (Singapore’s Computer Emergency Response Team). The MoU which envisions research collaborations, in the sector, between the two countries, also agreed to setup appropriate mechanisms to facilitate future dialogue on prevalent policies, best practice, bilateral consultations and real-time exchange of information and has established a broader framework of cooperation between the countries.

India’s recently established and renewed bilateral ties with these countries hinges on mutual sharing of information and best-practices, both critical in constructing a shared response to conspicuous cyber incidents. As these collaborations also come in the wake of joint commitment of India and US to strengthen cooperation on a range of cyber issues, India’s serious commitment in fostering multiple bilateral dialogues and cooperation on cybersecurity and related issues is apparent and must be lauded.