Moscow, Beijing to sign cybersecurity deal: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Moscow and Beijing plan to sign an agreement on Russian-Chinese cooperation in the field of cybersecurity in the first half of 2015, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported Wednesday, Nov 12, according to Sputnik News.

"Earlier, Russian state institutions did not exclude that the document would be approved during the current visit of [Russian] President Vladimir Putin to Beijing, however, in the end it was decided to make it [the agreement] more extensive and practical which will take a few more months," the newspaper said, citing a source familiar with the talks.

"This [the agreement] will be more powerful than what we have with the Americans," the source stressed, referring to the cybersecurity pact signed between the United States and Russia in 2013. As part of the pact, Moscow and Washington set up a working group to address a broad range of Internet security concerns.

The cybersecurity intergovernmental agreements reached between the United States and Russia in 2013 are still in force, despite the recent souring of relations between the two countries over the situation in Ukraine.