Press release on the adoption of the third annual report of the UN Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of Information and Communications Technologies

On July 8–12, the eighth substantive session of the UN Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on ICT was held in New York, following which the third annual progress report of this mechanism was adopted by consensus, which reflected many elements of the approaches of Russia and its like-minded countries to ensuring international cybersecurity.

The consensus decision to establish a universal UN negotiation mechanism on cybersecurity, after the current OEWG concludes its work in 2025, agreeing its key parameters and consolidating this in the document became the main result of the intense negotiations. The parties managed to maintain a purely consensual decision-making procedure with the leading role of states and to enshrine the task to develop legally binding norms in the mandate of the OEWG’s successor mechanism.

The Russian side is ready to further constructively participate in the process of specifying the details of the future mechanism during the final negotiating cycle of the OEWG (December 2023 – July 2025). Russia will continue to uphold the need to create a fair international cybersecurity system as a priority, built on the principles of equality, mutual respect, trust, and consideration of all states’ interests.