Pompeo warns Germany on consequences of buying Huawei

[May 31, 2019]    BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States aims to educate its international partners on the risks posed by next-generation wireless networks manufactured by China's Huawei, but allies will make their own sovereign buying decisions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas during a meeting at Villa Borsig guest house in Berlin, Germany, May 31, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Speaking after a meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas in Berlin on Friday, Pompeo warned that the U.S. might have to withhold data on citizens or on national security if it didn't have confidence in the networks Germany was using.

"They will take their own sovereign decisions, (but we) will speak to them openly about the risks ... and in the case of Huawei the concern is it is not possible to mitigate those anywhere inside of a 5G network," he said.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Thomas Seythal)

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