Hanoi(VNA) – The Ministry of National Defence partnered with the InternationalCommittee 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 thepresence 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 aplatform for participants to discuss and explore fundamental provisions of theInternational Humanitarian Law relating to cyber warfares, and aimed to enhance capacity building for theparticipating countries, contributing to the maintenance of the regional cybersecurity.
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 NationalDefence has made every effort to effectively maintain the defence cooperationprocess on cyber security within the ADMM-Plus via virtual meetings amidCOVID-19
Together withother ASEAN member states, Vietnam has agreed that critical informationtechnology (IT) infrastructure should be seen as national properties that forma backbone of the most important functions, services and operations in thesociety, Trung said.
He added Vietnamhas focused on strengthening cybersecurity potential for the protection of thecritical IT infrastructure through intensive training and capacity building forspecialised cybersecurity forces, accelerating experience sharing andinternational cooperation in responding to attacks to such infrastructure.
Vietnam supportsthe application of the International Humanitarian Law to settle cyber warfares,he continued, noting that the VietnameseMinistry of Defence is committed to actively and responsibly participate inASEAN’s defence cooperation mechanisms in cyber security in order to preventcyber attacks, violations of national sovereignty on cyberspace and cyberwarfares./.