In a surprise announcement, Huawei will help develop Hungary’s 5G mobile network, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban defied efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to quarantine the telecom giant. Speaking at China’s International Import Expo in Shanghai, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Huawei will cooperate with Britain’s Vodafone and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom in the project.
Szijjarto emphasised that Hungary does not discriminate between companies on the basis of nationality, the only condition it imposes is to comply with the country’s laws and regulations. The United States has tried to persuade allies to shun the Chinese company, which it says can be forced to give the Chinese government backdoor access to data.
EDITOR’S PICK: Huawei Mate 20 and Huawei P30 break 17 million and 20 million shipments
During a visit to Budapest in February, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned allies against deploying equipment from the Chinese company, saying it would make it more difficult for Washington to “partner alongside them”.
In April, Szijjarto said that Hungary’s good cooperation with Huawei was in the country’s economic and strategic interests. He has called disapproval of Hungary’s openness toward China “hypocritical,” as countries and companies all over the world do business with the country. Not many other countries seem to share this view however.
The company has repeatedly denied criticism that it poses a security risk for countries where it operates. Last week, the head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service added his voice to the debate, saying that Huawei “can’t fully be trusted” because of its “high level of dependence” on the Chinese state.
Szijjarto didn’t specify the precise role Huawei would have in building Hungary’s 5G network, though if things proceed as is, we’ll probably find out soon enough.
UP NEXT: Huawei Nova 5i with 4 GB RAM emerged on TENAA
(Source)
