Research and education network leaders from across the vast Asia-Pacific region have officially signed a historic declaration in Auckland, New Zealand, aimed at fundamentally strengthening collective cyber resilience. The agreement comes amid mounting regional and global concerns regarding the escalating frequency and sophistication of cyber incidents, and the profound impact these disruptions can inflict on the vital digital infrastructure supporting academic research, higher education, and vital international cooperation.
The formal pact, known as the Auckland Declaration of Intent on Cyber Resilience, was signed during the prominent APAN62 conference. By affixing their signatures to the document, the participating leaders and organizations have committed themselves to working closely together across several critical domains. These include proactive trust-building, heightened state of preparedness, streamlined information sharing, coordinated incident response, and mutual operational support, carefully structured within the boundaries where national laws and individual institutional policies allow.
Research and education networks serve as the invisible backbone of modern academia, playing a critical and irreplaceable role in enabling international scientific collaboration. These specialized high-capacity networks provide researchers, educators, and institutions with seamless access to massive datasets, advanced high-performance computing platforms, specialized scientific facilities, and rare expertise located across the globe. However, as these specialized digital networks become increasingly interconnected to foster greater scientific breakthroughs, they also inherit complex vulnerabilities. Consequently, a cyber incident affecting a single organization or a localized node can rapidly trigger cascading consequences, impacting multiple economies and disrupting time-sensitive research projects simultaneously.
Speaking on behalf of the APAN/Asi@Connect Leaders Forum, Roshan G. Ragel emphasized that the newly minted declaration is rooted in the fundamental recognition that true cyber resilience relies just as heavily on established human trust and collaborative relationships as it does on advanced technical security capabilities.
Research and education networks do not operate in isolation from one another, Ragel noted during the discussions surrounding the signing. When one part of the wider regional community experiences a disruptive event, others may need to step in quickly, provide assistance, share critical threat intelligence, or coordinate a unified response. He added that the primary purpose of the declaration is to proactively build those vital networks of trust long before an emergency actually materializes.
Ragel further highlighted that regional cooperation is of paramount importance given that research and education communities are, by their very nature, inherently international and borderless. Our users collaborate seamlessly across different economies, diverse time zones, and varied institutions every single day, he explained. The underlying digital networks that support them must be equally prepared to cross those same boundaries when disruption occurs.
According to Ragel, the declaration provides a pragmatic and practical foundation for strengthening regional cooperation while simultaneously respecting the reality that each participating organization operates within its own distinct national, legal, and institutional framework.
Looking beyond immediate regional borders, the Auckland Declaration also establishes crucial linkages between local Asia-Pacific efforts and the Global Security Policy Alliance, an international initiative dedicated to reinforcing security cooperation and information sharing among research and education networks worldwide. As part of their forward-looking commitments under the declaration, signatories will actively explore the establishment of a dedicated regional chapter, or a closely aligned collaborative structure, ensuring that local priorities, operational contexts, and organizational autonomy remain fully preserved.
The high-profile signing ceremony brought together key leaders from across the region who formally endorsed the text on behalf of their respective organizations. The document was signed by Amber McEwen, Chief Executive Officer of REANNZ, the operator of New Zealand’s advanced research and education network; Shinji Shimojo, Chair of the APAN Board; Jungsu Song, President of TEIN*CC; and Roshan G. Ragel representing the APAN/Asi@Connect Leaders Forum.
Through this unified commitment, the leaders hope to create a safer, more robust, and highly collaborative digital ecosystem capable of withstanding the evolving threat landscape, ensuring that international scholarship and scientific discovery can proceed without interruption across the Asia-Pacific region.
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