History of Japan-India cyber security cooperation

l  April 30, 2012: Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna held the 6^th Japan-India Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue in India. Recognizing the serious threats posed by cyber-attacks, the ministers agreed that Japan and India should start cooperating on cyber security such as discussions regarding an international code of conduct and launching a bilateral cyber dialogue.[1]

l  November 5, 2012: the Japanese and Indian governments held the 1^st Cyber Dialogue at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Tokyo. The Japanese delegation was headed by Ambassador Osamu Imai in charge of cyber policy and the group included representatives from the Cabinet Secretariat, Ministry of Defense (MOD), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), MOFA, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), and National Police Agency. The Indian delegation was led by Special Secretary Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs. The participants discussed national or international security challenges in cyberspace, their efforts to deal with cyber crimes, protect their assets for information security, economy, and social welfare, and potential areas to cooperate on.[2]

l  September 1, 2014: Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi had a summit meeting in Tokyo. In their Tokyo Declaration for Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership, they “recognized their wide-ranging shared interests in security of maritime and cyber domains.” They agreed to cooperate each other and also “with like-minded partners to preserve the integrity and inviolability of these global commons.”[3]

l  December 3, 2014: the MIC and India’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) held the 2nd India-Japan Joint Working Group under India-Japan ICT Comprehensive Cooperation Framework in New Delhi, inviting ICT companies from both countries. The representatives agreed to work on two projects for bilateral cyber security cooperation, Japan-India Combat Spam Project and Cooperative project for detecting symptoms and quick response to cyber attacks (PRACTICE).[4]