India and the US agree on cybersecurity cooperation and multistakeholder Internet governance

The Indian Prime Minister Modi and the US President Obama agreed to finalise soon a joint “Framework for the U.S.-India Cyber Relationship” focusing on cybersecurity. Besides enhancing the cooperation among their law enforcement agencies and their CERT teams, they agreed to strengthen the security of the critical infrastructure, restrain from cyber-espionage, combat various cyber-attacks by state and non-state actors (bearing in mind the applicability of international law including the United Nations Charter and the voluntary norms of responsible state behavior and confidence building measures), and invest in research and development of cybersecurity products. The joint statement puts a focus on preserving the Internet as an engine of commerce, managed through a multistakeholder model rather than by the governments; in terms of Internet governance, this moves India closer to positions of the US and its allies, and further away from the positions of China and Russia.