TEHRAN — Iran is ready to share its cybersecurity experience with Iraq and expand cooperation in information and communications technology (ICT), Iran’s communications minister said on Monday, as the two countries discussed technology, infrastructure and digital-economy projects.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Sattar Hashemi said Iran had faced extensive cyberattacks, particularly during the country’s recent war, and had gained significant experience in dealing with them.
“Cybersecurity is an area that requires interaction,” Hashemi said at a joint news conference with Iraqi Communications Minister Mustafa Jabar Sind after their meeting in Tehran. “Our experiences can be shared with our Iraqi counterpart.”
Hashemi said Iran was pursuing “technology diplomacy” and described the Iraqi minister’s visit as part of that policy, adding that the two sides had held important talks on a broad range of cooperation.
The minister said Iran and Iraq had agreed on training, with Iranian institutions able to provide training for Iraqi personnel through Iran’s Information Technology Research Institute.
The two countries were also focusing on ICT infrastructure. Iran’s Telecommunication Infrastructure Company had reached an agreement with its Iraqi counterpart to export technologies available in Iran to Iraq’s infrastructure company, Hashemi said.
He said the two countries should turn their existing technological potential into concrete cooperation and raise the ceiling of bilateral technology ties, adding that such cooperation could eventually extend to other Islamic countries in the field of the digital economy.
Hashemi also said Iran and Iraq had discussed measures to facilitate foreign tourists’ access to domestic telecommunications services and SIM cards.
Sind said Iraq intended to cooperate with Iran in postal services and cybersecurity, noting that several memoranda of understanding had been signed between the two countries in previous years.
“Iranian technology is secure and indigenous,” the Iraqi minister said, adding that Iran had made significant progress in communications infrastructure as well as telecommunications software and hardware.
He said Iraq saw opportunities for cooperation with Iranian technology companies in these areas.