The United Kingdom ranks 10
th in the 2021
Network Readiness Index (NRI), 9
th in the 2021
Digital Skills Gap Index and 14
th in the 2021
IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking. The British digital sector contributes roughly £149 billion each year to the economy and employs more than 1.5 million people [
x]. The country also remains Europe’s unofficial ‘start-up capital’, with British tech startups
attracting more than $15 billion in venture capital investment in the midst of a global pandemic. Nevertheless, new and emerging challenges to peace and security in cyberspace represent pressing concerns for the UK [
x]. Over the course of 2021, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre dealt with 777 significant incidents, with around 20% of supported organisations being linked to the health sector and Covid vaccines [
x]. In the face of ever-increasing cyber vulnerabilities, the UK government has recently adopted a
strategy of ‘levelling up’ protection for British cyberspace. This has brought international collaboration on cyber issues to the forefront of Britain’s diplomatic agenda. British diplomacy has traditionally championed the rules-based international system both online and offline,
placing great emphasis on human rights, democratic values and free trade.
Japan is a trusted partner and shares the same basic values of human rights, rule of law, and democratic governance. This common set of values also applies to cyberspace as both the EU and Japan have publicly expressed strong support for an open, free and secure internet and the application of international norms to state activities in cyberspace. Japan is also an important trading partner of the EU. The recently adopted Economic Partnership Agreement also reinforces the need for a closer integration of the digital economies. Alignment in broader international economic and political issues is also evident in the field of cyber diplomacy and thus constitutes a strong foundation for close cooperation and partnership.
As of 2009, Ukraine has been a member of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and a strategic partner for the EU. On the basis of the
EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (AA) signed in 2014, the country has engaged in legislative and policy reforms aiming at gradual convergence with the EU
acquis, including on digital economy. During the past two years, digitalisation has become a
“flagship topic” in Ukraine, with a growing focus on e-government, digital citizenship, and state support for the local IT industry. Ukraine suffered large-scale cyberattacks during the 2014 presidential elections [
x], distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks during the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 [
x], malware attacks on its power grid in 2015 [
x], and was also heavily impacted by the devastating global-scale
NotPetya attack in 2017. This explains why Ukraine prioritised capacity building efforts to strengthen its cyber resilience.