After in Vientiane in 2016, in Hanoi in 2017 and in Siem Reap in 2018, the 4th ICT4Peace Senior Level Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy Workshop for CLMV Countries was held in Naypyitaw, Myanmar from 4 to 5 April 2019. The workshop was co-organized by the Ministry of Post and Telecom of Myanmar and ICT4Peace, with the generous financial support of the Government of Australia.

The objective of this series of workshops is to support the ongoing cooperation among the CLMV countries in the field of cybersecurity and to deepen the understanding the role of international law, norms of responsible state behaviour and confidence-building measures for a peaceful cyberspace.

In particular, these workshops are also intended to brief and prepare especially developing  countries to follow and participate in the work of the forthcoming Groups at the UN in New York:

UN Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (UN GGE). See General Assembly  Resolution sponsored by the United States: A/RES/73/266: Advancing responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international security”

UN Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security. See General Assembly Resolution sponsored by Russia: A/RES/73/27 Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security”

The CLMV workshops are an integral part of ICT4Peace’s global cybersecurity capacity building program including with ASEAN and similar workshops that have been organised with all ASEAN Governments in Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.

This workshop has also to be seen as a follow-up to the groundbreaking statement by Heads of State/Government of ASEAN Member States, gathered in Singapore for the 32nd ASEAN Summit on 28 April 2018 in which inter alia the leaders asked the Ministers of ASEAN Members States, “to identify a concrete list of voluntary, practical norms of State behaviour in cyberspace that ASEAN can work towards adopting and implementing, and to strengthen cooperation on personal data protection in cyberspace”.

The Agenda of the workshop can be found here.