The US and the EU have put significant diplomatic pressure on the Malaysian government to ban Chinese network equipment maker Huawei from the country's 5G network, the Financial Times reports.
Letters from US Ambassador Brian McFeeters and the head of the EU delegation to Malaysia, Michalis Rokas, warn of potential legal and national security problems if the country succumbs to what the Financial Times describes as heavy pressure from Huawei.
"Senior Washington officials agree with me that changing the current model will hurt the competitiveness of new industries, halt the growth of 5G in Malaysia, and damage Malaysia's business-oriented image internationally," McFeeters wrote, according to the Financial Times. "Allowing untrusted vendors to access any part of the network puts Malaysia's national security infrastructure at risk."
The letter's request was a decision to review Malaysia's decision to select Ericsson as the sole prime contractor for its 5G network: the company won the $2.5 billion government bid.
According to information, Rokas' letter said that European companies investing abroad considered a politically correct decision and expressed dissatisfaction with the possibility of switching to "Huawei".
"[Any changes] will likely have a negative effect on the terms of the contract agreed upon when the open tender began," Rokas wrote.
The diplomatic push, reported by the Financial Times, is part of the ongoing dispute between the United States and China over Huawei-focused telecommunications policies. Citing national security concerns about Huawei's close relationship with the Chinese government, successive US governments have imposed bans on the company's equipment and asked other countries to do the same.
EU member states that initially resisted the Trump administration's boycott calls have turned against Huawei in recent years, France has cracked down on national telecommunications, and Germany has considered following the US, UK and many others. other official nations. Huawei block from national networks.
The United States has also introduced laws requiring the State Department to monitor the use of devices by allies of companies such as Huawei or ZTE: the Unreliable Foreign Telecommunications Act was passed in September 2022 and is currently under the control of the Senate.
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