Cyber Diplomacy and Data Governance: Legal Perspectives on India-Malaysia Cooperation in the Digital Indo-Pacific Knowledge Gaps, Definition of Methods and Analytical Procedure

Though the Digital Indo-Pacific is becoming increasingly significant, cyber diplomacy and data governance have been developing as distinct research fields and the bilateral legal relationship between India and Malaysia has not been explored much (problem statement). In order to address these identified knowledge gaps, it is necessary to define a methodology for the analysis of the ASEAN-India legal landscape (solution), which, in this paper, is presented as a mix of doctrinal legal analysis, comparative legal method and normative document analysis. In response, this paper identifies the following five interrelated gaps in the knowledge base: limited bilateral legal research, the fragmented treatment of cyber diplomacy and data governance, weak analysis of ASEAN-India normative interaction, insufficient legal interoperability assessment and lack of research grounded in the implementation. The methodology is implemented at three stages of analysis: comparative legal mapping, interoperability assessment and normative gap analysis, all of which examine not only what the law offers, but how well it is able to assist in facilitating bilateral cooperation in the field (significant findings). The final framework provides a structured and interdisciplinary platform for the convergence of cyber-norms, law interoperability and building a trusted and resilient India-Malaysia digital partnership (applications).