France and Canada have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of military materiel for Ukraine and in the field of training within the framework of the Defense Contact Group (Ramstein), in particular, they will continue to deepen strategic cooperation in the field of cyber defense in support of Ukraine, according to a declaration agreed upon during a meeting in Ottawa on September 26 by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are committed to working with Ukraine and our partners to enable Ukraine to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression, both in traditional domains and in cyberspace, including by supporting the strengthening of Ukraine’s civilian cybersecurity capacity through the Tallinn Mechanism. More broadly, we will continue to discuss topics of mutual interest that were discussed during the Paris Conference on February 26, 2024,” the document, published on the Canadian government’s website, reads.
The declaration states that Canada and France have already trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation UNIFIER for Canada and the EU Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine) for France. The armed forces of the two countries also continued to cooperate in training Ukrainian fighter pilots.
Denmark is contributing DKK 91 million ($13.3 million) to projects to support the development of cybersecurity and defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“The donation is made under the auspices of the Estonia-led and Luxembourg-led IT Coalition for Ukraine, which Denmark has joined along with a number of other countries,” the statement said.
Denmark and other members of the IT Coalition signed a cooperation agreement yesterday on the sidelines of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
“This donation is an important contribution to the long-term support for strengthening Ukraine’s cyber defense. Since the beginning of the invasion, Denmark has made a significant contribution to the Ukrainian liberation struggle, and this also applies to cyberspace,” said Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
In addition to Denmark, the coalition includes Estonia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Ukraine. So far, Denmark, Estonia and Luxembourg have made financial donations to the coalition.
An agreement on the development of electronic communications, 5G corridors and cooperation in the field of digitalization between Ukraine and Romania was signed by Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development and Minister of Digital Transformation, and Bogdan-Gruia Ivan, Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization.
“This will allow the exchange of experience between Ukrainian and Romanian specialists, as well as the implementation of joint projects for the development of telecommunications infrastructure, digitalization, and cybersecurity,” the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MinCyber) said in a statement on Thursday.
According to the press release, the parties agreed to jointly develop 5G corridors between Ukraine and Romania, cloud infrastructure for public e-services, restore and modernize digital infrastructure affected by Russian aggression, increase the resilience and security of information and communication technologies, and strengthen cybersecurity of national networks and digital infrastructure.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation noted that the agreement will allow Ukraine to participate in EU financial support programs.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to first settle the issue of providing the proper level of cyber defense and cybersecurity in the sphere of money transfer.
The respective initiative is contained in the draft resolution of the NBU approving the regulation on cyber defense and cybersecurity in payment and settlement systems, the text of which was posted on the regulator’s website for public discussion.
In particular, the draft resolution provides for determining the requirements for the payment market players in building an cyber defense and cybersecurity system, the procedure for detecting cyber attacks that reduce the reliability of payment and settlement systems, as well as the requirements for organizational and technical measures to ensure the protection of information and cybersecurity by the payment market players.
The regulator said that this document is based on the requirements and recommendations of national and international cybersecurity standards, as well as modern approaches to cyber defense and cybersecurity that are universally accepted in international practice.
The adoption of the draft resolution will allow minimizing the number cyber incidents in the sphere of money transfer, regulating the use of cybersecurity tools, increasing the reliability of the functioning and efficiency of payment and settlement systems, speeding up the modernization of payment systems, taking into account modern cybersecurity technologies.
Comments and proposals for the NBU draft document will be accepted until October 27.
