Huawei security fears are ‘natural’, says Lithuania’s ambassador to China
- Ina Marciulionyte says globalisation means Baltic nation’s concerns are unavoidable
- Lithuanian intelligence services added China section to threat assessment report
Lithuania’s ambassador to China said it was “natural” for her country to be cautious about the security of telecoms gear made by Chinese technology company Huawei.
Ina Marciulionyte said the Baltic state had completed a risk assessment of its fifth-generation development, and it suggested mitigating measures such as a European Union-wide list of trusted 5G vendors should be created.
“It is natural for Lithuania, being part of a transatlantic community which is concerned about the safety of Huawei’s equipment, to have debates on this issue,” Marciulionyte said.
“The debate over the technology’s safety is taking place not just in the United States or Japan, but also in the European Union,” she said on Tuesday as the EU neared the October deadline for its own 5G security assessment.
The bloc started work on its “common European approach” in March, with the aim of settling a debate over 5G security that has dogged Huawei and other Chinese companies.
EU officials have voiced concerns that Chinese technology may be a back door for espionage – claims that China and the companies concerned have denied.
Huawei’s two main competitors in 5G communications are Ericsson of Sweden and Nokia of Finland, and both countries are neighbours of Lithuania.
Hong Kong protest is not the new Baltic Way, Lithuanian ambassador to China says
Last week, Germany warned that “nation states or nation state-backed actors” might use next-generation telecoms to launch cyberattacks on the EU, a statement analysts took to be a swipe at China and Huawei.
The US has been banging the drum about Huawei and security since 2012, and some allies, such as Australia, have banned the Chinese company’s presence in their networks completely.
In March, the US threatened to stop sharing intelligence with Germany if it did not limit Huawei gear in its 5G networks.
Even after the EU security assessment is complete, action on 5G will take time. The bloc’s cybersecurity authorities have set December 31 as a deadline to agree on a “toolbox of mitigating measures”.
In February, Lithuania’s intelligence agency added a China section to its annual national threat assessment report, saying that Chinese intelligence services had expanded their interest in the country.
Defence minister Raimundas Karoblis said in June that the decision on whether to use Huawei gear in Lithuania’s 5G networks should be made at the EU level, and by Nato.
“Lithuanian companies and people use Huawei phones and technological equipment,” Marciulionyte said. “It [the Huawei debate] is unavoidable in a global world, where competition among international companies is very high.”
