On June 22-23, 2026, the Observer Research Foundation America and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, in partnership with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, hosted a two-day virtual Southeast Asia Cyber Policy Roundtable.

This invitation-only dialogue brought together over 50 expert participants from Southeast Asian countries and others active in the region from government, civil society, academia, and the private sector to focus on the future of cyber diplomacy and governance, including the United Nations Global Mechanism, international law and norms, confidence building measures, and cyber capacity building over five substantive sessions. Plenary and breakout group discussions centered around the future of Southeast Asia’s ability to mobilize capacity and talent, efforts to coordinate deeper regional cooperation in cyber, lessons learned from implementing confidence building measures and norms of responsible state behavior in ASEAN, and proactive steps to shape and lead in global cyber diplomatic negotiations based on shared practical regional experiences with trust and confidence building.

These convenings were part of a larger Global Cyber Dialogue Series being organized by ORF America and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands which seeks to convene regional dialogues to address key cyber challenges, strengthen multistakeholder networks, and increase coordination of regional capacity building initiatives.

A full summary of the meeting can be found here.