US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secures Slovenia support for ‘Clean Network’ campaign against Chinese technology
- Pompeo lambasts ‘authoritarian threats’ such as China’s effort ‘to control people and information’ on the second leg of his four-nation tour
- Pompeo and Slovenian officials sign a joint declaration on ‘5G Clean Network Security’ that aims to keep untrusted telecommunications vendors out of Slovenia
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured Slovenia’s support for his “Clean Network” campaign against Chinese technology, as he continued warning against the Communist Party during his Central European tour.
Pompeo lambasted “authoritarian threats” such as China’s effort “to control people and information” on the second leg of his four-nation tour – three of which have joined China’s “17+1” grouping in central and eastern Europe.
“Free nations must work together to confront authoritarian threats,” he said in Slovenia. “It is absolutely critical that every nation makes a good sovereign decision about how the private information of its citizens is going to be handled.”
Contrary to the Czech Republic, Pompeo’s first stop, Slovenia has effectively rejected Huawei Technologies in its 5G systems, as it last month rolled out a nationwide commercial network with the Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson.
“The tide is turning against the Chinese Communist Party and its efforts to control information,” Pompeo said.
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Pompeo and Slovenian officials signed a joint declaration on “5G Clean Network Security” that aims to keep untrusted telecommunications vendors out of Slovenia.