Hungary ignores US trade war and goes with Huawei for 5G

By Fiona Leake
published

Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade has included Huawei in the roll-out of its 5G network.

Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade has included Huawei in the roll-out of its 5G network.
(Image credit: Future)

The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade has opened the door for Huawei’s involvement in the roll-out of its 5G network.

And despite the increased pressure from the US, urging its allies to turn their backs on the company due to security concerns, it appears that Hungary is confident in Huawei’s reliability. 

No evidence 

Although there is a great deal of concern surrounding Huawei’s trustworthiness, Hungary claims that there is no evidence of its equipment posing a security threat. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Péter Szijjártó, said that Huawei would cooperate with Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom in the build-out of 5G. 

Hungary had planned to wrap up its 5G contracts by the end of October, but there have clearly been delays.

“Not in the best interest of Hungary” 

"We know about the risks that Huawei's presence in [Hungary’s] networks present."

Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State.

In February this year, Huawei being involved with 5G networks in Hungary was a hot topic at a meeting in Budapest between Péter Szijjártó and U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

"We know about the risks that Huawei's presence in [Hungary’s] networks present,” Pompeo said at the time. “Actual risks to their people, to the loss of privacy protections for their own people, to the risk that China will use this in a way that is not in the best interest of Hungary." 

However, Szijjártó claims that involvement with Huawei is in the country's economic and strategic interests.

Despite this, countries such as Germany are beginning to change their mind about Huawei. The country was originally planning on offering a “level-playing field” to 5G equipment providers. However, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs suggested that Huawei could be required by law to pass on sensitive information to China. This has placed doubt in Germany’s mind about allowing the company to help with 5G build-out.

Fiona Leake
Fiona Leake

Fiona discovered her love for investing and making money from a young age. Since then this interest has grown and now she loves writing about investing and business, and follows the 5G market closely. She is also a technology enthusiast, and so they tend to be her favourite investments.