The United States intends to push its allies to take common security measures and policies s that will make it more difficult for China’s Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks, Reuters reported quoting sources.
Washington believes that China can use Huawei equipment for spying. Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Officials from more than 30 countries will meet on May 2-3 in Prague to agree on security principles for next-generation telecommunications networks, said Robert Kahofer, chief of cabinet at Czech cybersecurity agency NUKIB.
The US official said the Prague meeting marks a strategic shift in how the US government plans to call on the allies to abandon Huawei. The official described the approach as “softer.”
The US proposals for the Prague meeting call on governments and operators to consider the legal environment in the supplier’s country, the amount of state support the company receives, the transparency of the corporate structure and the reliability of the equipment. The United States will also urge partners to set security priorities and work together to investigate cyberattacks targeting 5G architecture.
The documents do not mention the name of Huawei, the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, but US officials said they hoped that this would provide the “intellectual framework” other countries need to effectively ban Chinese suppliers.
In August, US President Donald Trump signed a bill that bans the US government from using Huawei and ZTE Corp equipment.
“The goal is to agree upon a set of shared principles that would ensure the security of next-generation telecommunications networks,” said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Delegations from all 28 countries of the European Union, as well as the European Commission, NATO and around eight other countries including the United States and Australia are expected to attend, Kahofer said.
China and Russia were not invited, he added, but stressed that the event is not a “conference against Huawei or against China.”
Europe has become a key battleground for the future of 5G, while the US is pushing allies and partners to ban Chinese suppliers, but European governments wary of the trade and economic consequences of angering Beijing. Internet service providers have also warned that banning Huawei would incur huge costs and delay the rollout of 5G by years.
