SANTIAGO – The 16th Defense Staff Talks between United Kingdom and Chile took place on 13-14 September 2018 in Santiago at the Ministry of Defense.
The talks were led by the Undersecretary of Defense, Cristian de la Maza Riquelme, representing Chile and the Minister for the Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster, representing the United Kingdom.
The meeting is the most valuable dialogue instance between both Ministries of Defense, in which there is the opportunity to exchange views on topics of mutual interest and to discuss opportunities for mutual cooperation.
During the meeting the status of the activities agreed in the 2017 Defense Talks was revised; topics of mutual interest were discussed, mainly relating to the bilateral cooperation agenda between both countries, and there was an exchange of defense political views.
Furthermore, as part of these activities, the United Kingdom delivered a Cyber defense workshop, attended by members of the Chilean Armed Forces and of the national cyber-security sector.
At the end of the meeting, the Undersecretary of Defense, Cristián de la Maza, and the Minister for the Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster, signed a Letter of Agreement for mutual cooperation in cyber defense.
Undersecretary de la Maza thanked the United Kingdom for sharing its experiences in different areas of common interest, particularly in the field of Cyber-defense, “as this helps us to better understand the challenges we face and reduce learning periods, as we learn from countries that have already traveled this path”.
In this regard, activities such as the one carried out together with the signing of the letter of intent, help strengthen the close ties that exist between both countries in terms of establishing relations of collaboration.
“The UK is working with friends and partners around the globe, including Chile, to share experience and information and help counter threats and attacks in cyber space. It is a pleasure for us to have a team of British experts to work with the Chilean MOD, with the aim of sharing our experience in cyber security and defense” said Minister Lancaster.
“The UK hopes that the signing of a Letter of Intent on cyber defense cooperation will be another step in moving forward together to counter a threat that has the potential to affect all of us” underlined the British minister..
At the end of the visit, Minister Lancaster and the UK delegation visited the Chilean Peacekeeping Operations Centre – CEOCPAC and had the opportunity to meet with the Director of CECOPAC and to have a tour of the facilities.
