South Africa and Russia have reportedly signed a cooperation agreement on cyber security.
This is according to Russian news agency, TASS, which reported the document was inked by top diplomats from both nations on the side-lines of the 9th BRICS Summit, currently under way in Xiamen, China.
Russia's foreign ministry confirmed in a press release that the "agreement on maintaining international information security" was signed by Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and SA minister of international relations and cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, on Monday.
The Russian foreign ministry says the signing of this document "once again proves the high level of trust between our states" and "shows the striving of Russia and South Africa to expand bilateral cooperation on one of the most important aspects of maintaining international and national security".
So far, the South African government has made no statement to confirm the deal.
Russia, however, says the agreement will allow the two countries to conduct practical cooperation on a range of issues to maintain international information security at a new level.
"This implies the creation of a joint system for responding to threats in this sphere, for investigating cases of the use of information-communication technologies for terrorist and other criminal purposes, for jointly drafting and advancing the relevant norms of international law, implementing joint research and development projects and training experts in this field.
"Another key stage in the history of Russian-South African cooperation has been completed in Xiamen: both countries have formalised their identical approaches to maintaining international information security, and they have laid an international legal framework for implementing specific joint initiatives in this area," Russia says.
To implement the agreement, Russia's foreign ministry says it and South Africa will hold regular interdepartmental consultations to discuss the entire range of issues for maintaining international information security.
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