The second meeting of the Sino-European Cyber Dialogue (SECD) was convened on 25-26 September 2014 in Beijing, China

The meeting was hosted by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) and held in partnership with the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). SECD is supported by the Chinese government, a number of European governments as well as the European External Action Service.

Overall, thirty-seven participants attended the second meeting of SECD. Of these, 16 delegates were from seven European countries, including six governmental cyber policy coordinators. The discussions concentrated on two broad topics: overall issues within international cybersecurity and possible futures of the Internet governance system.

Within the first topic, there was discussion on particular aspects of state behaviour in cyberspace, including those activities occurring at or below international humanitarian law. Critical infrastructure protection was highlighted as well as the burgeoning challenges of criminal and terrorist usage of the Internet. Concepts of neutrality in cyberspace were discussed as well. Within the second topic, participants discussed aspects of the evolution/innovation of Internet governance institutions, in particular of ICANN – and what a globalisation or internationalisation of this organisation would mean in practice. Capacity building, especially where there was overlap between international cybersecurity issues and Internet governance, was also considered.

Overall, there was wide agreement that the open exchanges at the second SECD meeting were useful in deepening mutual understanding and building confidence. To further support the exchange a number of cooperation initiatives were discussed, potentially to be addressed in advance of the third SECD meeting, to occur in The Hague in April 2015.

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