US welcomes UK Huawei ban, Pompeo praises Jio for barring firm's equipment

Countries need to be able to trust that 5G equipment and software will not threaten national security, says USA's top diplomat.

Welcoming the United Kingdom's decision to ban Huawei from future 5G networks, the US on Tuesday said a growing list of countries are standing up for their national security by prohibiting the use of "untrusted, high-risk vendors".

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said in a statement clean carriers, like Jio in India, have also prohibited the use of the Chinese company's equipment in their networks. He said that countries need to be able to trust that 5G equipment and software will not threaten national security, economic security, privacy, intellectual property, or human rights.

"We welcome news that the United Kingdom plans to ban Huawei from future 5G networks and phase out untrusted Huawei equipment from existing networks. With this decision, the UK joins a growing list of countries from around the world that are standing up for their national security by prohibiting the use of untrusted, high-risk vendors," Pompeo said in a statement.

"We confronted untrustworthy Chinese technology and telecom providers. We convinced many countries not to use Huawei because it's a big security risk. Just today, the UK announced that they are not going to be using it," Trump said while addressing reporters here.

"We will continue to work with our British friends on fostering a secure and vibrant 5G ecosystem, which is critical to Transatlantic security and prosperity," Pompeo's statement added.

The momentum in favour of secure 5G is building. The UK joins democracies such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Sweden in banning Huawei from future 5G networks, he said.

"Clean carriers like Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan, and others have also prohibited the use of Huawei equipment in their networks," he added

The UK on Tuesday announced its decision to ban British companies from buying Huawei-produced equipment for 5G networks from the end of the year.

"We have been clear-eyed from the start that Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE were deemed to be high-risk...The NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) has now reported to ministers that they have significantly changed their security assessment of Huawei's presence in the UK's 5G network...The UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment...," Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, told the UK Parliament.

This comes in the backdrop of US designating Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE Corp as national security threats, saying they have close ties with the Chinese Communist Party and China's military apparatus.