The Governments of Nicaragua and Russia signed an agreement for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), with the aim of “preventing, detecting and investigating” their incorrect use, the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry reported on Tuesday.
“Bilateral communication and the exchange of information will open spaces for us to favor the implementation of the institutional framework, prevent, detect, investigate the incorrect, abusive and criminal use of ICTs, maintaining a safe infrastructure environment,” said the Nicaraguan foreign minister. , Denis Moncada, in the act.
The agreement was signed at the headquarters of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between a Nicaraguan delegation headed by Moncada, and by the Russian ambassador in Managua, Alexander Khokhólikov, according to official information.
The Nicaraguan foreign minister related the agreement between Nicaragua and Russia with the Special Cybercrime Law, in force since the end of 2020, which establishes penalties of one to 10 years in prison for citizens accused of cybercrimes that go against “State security”. ”.
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“Nicaragua has a cybersecurity law that establishes promoting, preserving and guaranteeing the sovereign and reliable use of cyberspace. Given the transversal use of information and communication technologies, with the sustainable development of digital technology, this step that we are taking today in the development of cooperation helps us to foster relations of collaboration, peace and security,” Moncada said. .
He stressed that Nicaragua “as a member of the international community” can contribute its “knowledge and good practices that contribute to national and international information security” and “carry forward the implementation plan of the main areas of Russian-Nicaraguan collaboration.”
The signing of the ICT agreement between Nicaragua and Russia came one day after the governments of both countries signed a roadmap for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
President Daniel Ortega, who returned to the presidency in 2007, after having coordinated a Government Junta from 1979 to 1985 and presiding over the country for the first time from 1985 to 1990, is the main ally of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Central America. , who has said that Nicaragua is a “very important” partner of Russia in Latin America.
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Russia is an old ally of Nicaragua that during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990) provided Soviet weapons to the Nicaraguan Armed Forces.
Nicaragua is one of the few countries, along with Venezuela and the small island states of Nauru and Tuvalu, that have joined Russia in recognizing the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and that has received senior Russian officials since Moscow invaded Ukraine.
In addition, at the end of 2020 Nicaragua established a consulate in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory annexed to Russia, which led to the rejection of Ukraine.
