France and Germany organized on September 23rd 2022 a ministerial meeting, on the occasion of the 77th United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week, on the topic “Shaping Global Cybersecurity : A Call for Action to Promote Responsible State Behaviour and Capacity-Building”.

Alongside Catherine Colonna and Annalena Baerbock, the French and German Foreign Ministers, several ministers and civil society leaders took part in the Meeting.

The speakers were as follows: Olta Xhaçka, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Ranko Krivokapic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, Wopke Hoekstra, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Bujar Osmani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Northern Macedonia, Aïssata Tall Sall, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Senegal, Tanja Fajon, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Kai Sauer, Under-Secretary of State of Finland, Chris Painter, President of the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise, Luisa Parraguez Kobek, International Security Professor, Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mexico). Representatives from Canada, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Union also took part in the meeting.

All participants agreed that the rules-based international order must be defended online and offline and that cybersecurity was one of the determining policy areas of our time.

The participants highlighted that important work had been done within the framework of the United Nations in order to define rules that ensure security and stability in cyberspace. Nevertheless, they recognized that significant harm could still be caused by malicious cyber activity and that, in response, further developing and improving the rules was paramount. In addition, participants highlighted the need to build capacities and support the implementation of these rules throughout the globe, given that cyberspace does not know any borders.

Against this backdrop, participating States of the “Shaping Global Cybersecurity” event welcomed the proposal to establish a United Nations Programme of Action to advance responsible State behaviour in the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the context of international security, as a permanent, inclusive, action-oriented and results-based mechanism.

They insisted that this Programme of Action should be designed to support States in their efforts to implement and advance commitments regarding the use of ICTs in the context of international security, in particular the framework for responsible State behaviour. They reiterated that the future Programme of Action would also provide an inclusive and permanent forum to discuss and develop further this framework, and address emerging challenges related to use of ICTs in the context of international security. The Programme of Action should also promote engagement and cooperation with relevant Stakeholders.