Vietnam exerts all efforts to maintain cyber security cooperation within ADMM-Plus: Commander

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of National Defence partnered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to hold a virtual symposium themed “Cyber Warfare and International Humanitarian Law: Implications for Regional Security in the Context of COVID-19” on November 2.

The event saw the presence of representatives from member states of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) which gathers 10 ASEAN nations and its eight dialogue partners – Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the US.

It offered a platform for participants to discuss and explore fundamental provisions of the International Humanitarian Law relating to cyber warfares, and aimed to enhance capacity building for the participating countries, contributing to the maintenance of the regional cyber security.

In his remarks, Major General Tong Viet Trung, Deputy Commander of Cyberspace Operation Command (Command 86), said as the Chair of the ADMM and ADMM-Plus this year, the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence has made every effort to effectively maintain the defence cooperation process on cyber security within the ADMM-Plus via virtual meetings amid COVID-19

Together with other ASEAN member states, Vietnam has agreed that critical information technology (IT) infrastructure should be seen as national properties that form a backbone of the most important functions, services and operations in the society, Trung said.

He added Vietnam has focused on strengthening cybersecurity potential for the protection of the critical IT infrastructure through intensive training and capacity building for specialised cybersecurity forces, accelerating experience sharing and international cooperation in responding to attacks to such infrastructure.

Vietnam supports the application of the International Humanitarian Law to settle cyber warfares, he continued, noting  that the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence is committed to actively and responsibly participate in ASEAN’s defence cooperation mechanisms in cyber security in order to prevent cyber attacks, violations of national sovereignty on cyberspace and cyber warfares./.