Estonia and Ukraine strengthen cooperation on critical infrastructure protection
Estonia's State Chancellery and Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection have signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at exchanging knowledge and practical experience in the field of critical infrastructure protection.
As reported by ERR, Estonia wishes to draw on Ukrainian experience in ensuring the resilience of critical services, as well as to study Ukrainian methods of countering physical and cyber threats.
Ukraine, in turn, is interested in studying Estonia's experience in establishing various systems and implementing relevant European Union requirements.
"Through its wartime experience, Ukraine possesses the deepest competencies in protecting power supply systems, communications and other critical systems," said State Secretary Keit Kasemets.
Under the memorandum, knowledge transfer is planned for state institutions and facilities providing vital services, with particular focus on the protection of communications and energy infrastructure.
Topics to be covered include physical protection of those facilities, drone threat mitigation, secure data storage, cyber protection and detection of potential insider threats.
Estonian institutions that advise critical infrastructure facilities, including the Police and Border Guard Board and the Security Police, are also participating in the knowledge exchange.
The cooperation also covers implementation of the European Union directive on the resilience of critical entities, known as the CER directive.
Joint seminars, training sessions, and expert meetings are planned under the memorandum, with further forms of cooperation to be agreed to ensure the collaboration becomes permanent and practical.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul recently expressed the view that Europe should closely study Ukrainian experience in energy resilience.
Ukraine and the Netherlands also signed a memorandum of understanding on critical infrastructure protection.