Yahoo Finance US secretary of state Pompeo threatens Britain over Huawei 5G row
The US secretary of state has issued a thinly veiled threat to pull the plug on US intelligence-sharing with the UK over plans to involve Chinese tech giant Huawei in the rollout of 5G networks in Britain.
Mike Pompeo delivered the apparent ultimatum over security collaboration in a press conference on Wednesday, putting the UK under significant pressure to reverse the controversial decision.
Pompeo said the USA had a duty to ensure its information was only used “Inside trusted networks,” amid fears Huawei could be used for spying by the Chinese government.
Britain had indicated it would allow Huawei a limited role in building part of the network, but foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt was at pains to stress no final decision has yet been made.
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Mike Pompeo on Huawei: "We're making our views very well known", says US secretary of state – the US has "an obligation to make sure that places where American information is... operate inside trusted networks"https://t.co/UKIFmftXow pic.twitter.com/RoFV1S21Pk
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 8, 2019
"The United States has an obligation to ensure that places where we want to operate, places where American information is, places where we have our national security resident, they operate inside trusted networks," Pompeo said in London.
"With respect to 5G, we continue to have technical discussions, we're making our views very well known. From America's perspective, each country has a sovereign right to make its own decision about how to deal with the challenge."
Pompeo also said it was “disgusting” to see political leaders supporting Nicolas Maduro when he was asked about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged backing for the authoritarian Venezuelan president.
But Pompeo said his meetings with May and Corbyn had shown him Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with the USA was “thriving,” Reuters reports.
"It was evident in my conversations both with Jeremy and with Prime Minister May that the special relationship does not simply endure, it is thriving," he said.
He added that Trump was “very much looking forward” to his planned visit in June.
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