In an interview with the Dunyo Information Agency Director of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research, Oleg Makarov commented on the outcomes of the CIS International Expert Forum on Information Security held in Tashkent on June 29:
- During the CIS International Expert Forum on Information Security I was honoured to moderate one of the sections and would like to share my impressions. First of all, I would like to emphasize that in my memory and experience this is the first expert platform that would be created on the basis of expert institutions and modeled by the heads of the CIS member states' "think tanks". I presume, this is a successful experience and a very important issue at present, the relevance of which is increasing every year and every day.
Very interesting platforms, high involvement in the process of leaders of the Republic of Uzbekistan, different structures and the CIS on the whole, made it possible to develop very interesting and effective measures to ensure regional information security inside Commonwealth.
For the first time, we received clear expert analyses of the situation, and the resulting document reflected clear proposals on adequate responses. For me, the widest interest was, for example, the proposal to develop annual recommendations in connection with prompt changes of the situation in information field.
A very high level of presence, fundamental deliberation, well-organized sections and their names, definition of their focuses provided with deep and, most importantly, comprehensive consideration of information security issue which, as we know, is of a complex nature and is not a unilateral and one-sided challenge of only an infrastructure, technologies, or information, hybrid or some kind of psychological impact. It is the consideration of the situation on the whole that allows us to understand what phenomenon we have to deal with.
I wish to express deep appreciation to the Republic of Uzbekistan as the organizer, to institutions of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and to the moderator and co-organizer of this event.
On the part of the Republic of Belarus, I would like to say that this platform has introduced a number of initiatives that were interesting from our point of view and tested at the UN platforms, such as "Digital Neighborhood Belt", "Information Sovereignty", "Information Neutrality". I would like to draw the attention of the expert community to these concepts and we expect them to be supported on international platforms not only inside our region, but also inside the framework of global initiatives".