Has US security adviser John Bolton killed Huawei’s UK ambitions?
- Bolton says British officials may order a full review of Chinese telecoms giant 5G role
- US to wait until ‘after Brexit’ before exerting real pressure, he adds
Huawei Technologies’ involvement in Britain’s 5G networks could be back to square one, according to US national security adviser John Bolton, who is in London for talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new government.
Bolton – the most senior White House official to visit Downing Street since Johnson took over as prime minister last month – said on Monday that British officials had told him they were concerned enough about the Chinese telecoms giant that a full review might be in order.
“They [British officials] said in particular they are looking really from square one on the Huawei issue. They were very concerned about not having any compromise in security of telecommunications in the 5G space,” Bolton said.
“What they said was ‘we would like to review this and be very sure about our decision and we too are concerned about the security of our 5G telecommunications network’.”
Although he stopped short of pegging a Huawei ban to any potential British-US trade deal, Bolton said the US would wait until after Brexit before exerting pressure on Downing Street to fall into line on issues such as Huawei and the Iran nuclear deal.
It was the second warning in as many weeks from senior US officials to Britain to scrap former prime minister Theresa May’s preliminary agreement to allow Huawei into the country’s next-generation mobile upgrades, while at the same time luring Britain into a much-needed favourable trade deal with Washington in the wake of Brexit.