Baltic-Based Cyber Centre Welcomes New Members
NATO’s Co-operative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence has held a flag-raising ceremony at its Tallinn, Estonia, site to formally welcome its three newest members.
Canada, Luxembourg and South Korea bring the total number of nations which staff and fund the centre to 34. Not all members are NATO nations – Japan was already involved in the CCDCOE, as was Finland, whose team won the annual NATO cyber defence exercise, Locked Shields, in April; while Ukraine was admitted as a Contributing Participant (though not a full member) in March – so South Korea’s admission to the group was not unprecedented. The Centre exists to support its own members but also feeds back to NATO centrally on issues around research, training and strategy for cyber defence operations.
“It is a great honour to have Canada, Republic of Korea and Luxembourg in our growing and diverse family of like-minded nations,” stated Centre Director, Col Jaak Tarien. “Each member of the CCDCOE plays an important role in building and advancing a strong and efficient unity against cyber threats. In the long run, the conditions for peace in cyber realm and a response to the security threats to the modern world cannot be created without united and committed support.”
“Canada’s commitment to NATO is absolute,” said Kevin Rex, the nation’s ambassador to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. “Our presence in the Baltics is our largest anywhere in the world. We are over 1400 boots-on-the ground in the Baltics anchored in our leadership of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group in Latvia. Today, we are pleased to formally join the CCDCOE and contribute to strengthening Allied capacity to respond to evolving threats to our democracies taking place in the cyber realm, including as part of Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine.”
“Cooperation, sharing of information, skills and best practices are essential for tackling the challenges we face in cyberspace,” the Luxembourgeois Embassy stated. “Luxembourg is convinced that the expertise of the CCDCOE will strengthen its cyber defence efforts and we are committed to contributing our own experience.”
South Korea has previously collaborated with the Centre and its National Intelligence Service’s representative, Sun Hee Kim, has highlighted the importance of strengthening international partnerships, according to CCDCOE. The Yonhap News Agency quoted an NIS representative as saying: “We plan to strengthen our cyber response capabilities to a world-class level by increasing the number of our staff sent to the center and expanding the scope of joint training.”