Press Releases
The Open-Ended Working Group on security of and use of information and
communications technologies 2021-2025, first substantive session
December 20, 2021
From December 13th to 17th, the first session of the Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025 (OEWG 2021-2025) was held in New York.
- The OEWG is a meeting where all UN member states discuss a wide range of topics including awareness of existing and potential threats, norms, application of international law, confidence building measures and capacity-building in cyberspace. The OEWG was established in 2019 and adopted its final report last March. Additionally, it was decided in a UN resolution submitted last year that the OEWG would be reconvened to meet from 2021 to 2025.
- On December 14th, as part of the participants' general exchange of views, Yutaka ARIMA, Ambassador in charge of Cyber Policy made a video statement, in which he noted that cyberspace has become a public space and an indispensable economic and social infrastructure for all activities and that attack on cyberspace poses a major security risk. He underscored Japan's position that existing international law applies in cyberspace and reiterated that the discussions at OEWG 2021-2025 should be based on past outcomes including the UN GGE and OEWG reports.
