Romania leads NATO project on cyber-defence for Ukraine

According to the Romanian weekly, Business Review, Romania will participate as the lead-nation in a NATO Trust Fund for developing Ukraine’s cyber defence. The Romanian Intelligence Service (Serviciul Român de Informații, abbreviated SRI), announced the decision on Saturday.

  The Trust Fund has been created through the voluntary involvement of NATO member states, and Romania first declared itself willing to be the coordinator for the project at the recent NATO Summit in Wales.
 
“Given the context generated by a growing tension in Russian-Ukrainian relations and NATO’s need to strengthen its Eastern border, new measures of security have been implemented, the reason behind creating, through the voluntary participation of NATO member states, a Trust Fund for developing Ukraine’s capabilities in the area of cyber defence”, SRI says in a press release.
 
“Romanian specialists in information security are charged through this quality with defining the technical necessities and the architecture of a security system for protecting critical IT&C infrastructure against cybernetic threats. Also, another responsibility of a lead nation is identifying other NATO members and Trust Fund contributors to secure the necessary financial resources for implementing the project after its definition phase. Last but not least, the lead nation will assure project management and training for Ukrainian specialists to ensure the system yields proper results“, according to the press-release.
 
In the run up to the NATO Wales Summit, Bucharest officials urged the US and NATO to boost their military presence in Romania. In August, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that “NATO efforts have to be clearly channelled towards ensuring security in this region and towards clear support for new EU accession countries – for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, and for commitments related to their security”.