France and Germany organized a ministerial meeting on September 23, 2022, on the occasion of the high-level week of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, on the theme “Structuring global cybersecurity: Call to action for the development of a responsible state behavior and the strengthening of implementation capacities”.

Ms. Catherine Colonna and Ms. Annalena Baerbock, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France and Germany, as well as other ministers and representatives of civil society, participated in this meeting.

On this occasion, the speakers were: Olta Xhaçka, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Ranko Krivokapic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, Wopke Hoekstra, Minister of the Netherlands, Bujar Osmani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of North 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, Chairman of the Global Forum on Cyberexpertise and Luisa Parraguez Kobek, professor of international security and member of the Cyberpeace Institute. Representatives from Canada, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union also participated in the meeting.

All participants agreed that the international order based on law must be upheld both online and offline, and that cybersecurity was one of the defining strategic areas of our time.

The participants highlighted that significant progress has been made in the United Nations to establish rules that guarantee security and stability in cyberspace. However, they recognized that malicious cyber activity still has the potential to cause significant harm and therefore it was essential to continue developing and improving these rules. In addition, the participants highlighted the need to develop capacities and support the application of these rules throughout the world, since cyberspace knows no borders.

In this context, the States participating in the event “Structuring Global Cybersecurity” welcomed the proposal to establish a United Nations action program for responsible state behavior in the use of information and communications (ICT) in international security. , which will constitute a permanent program, an inclusive mechanism oriented to action and results.

They emphasized that this action program should be designed to support States’ efforts to implement and promote their commitments related to the use of ICTs in international security, in particular the framework for responsible state behaviour.

They reaffirmed that the future action program would also provide a permanent forum open to all to discuss and further develop this framework, as well as to address future challenges related to the use of ICTs in terms of international security. The action program should also promote dialogue and cooperation with relevant stakeholders.