BELGRADE (Serbia), September 18 (SeeNews) – The U.S. government plans to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Serbia on the development of secure 5G network infrastructure to limit the Chinese expansion in the sector, a U.S. government official said.
"5G MOU's are being planned with Ukraine, Georgia, and Serbia, to gain commitment from these partner countries to avoid using prohibited technologies," the Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip Reeker, said on Thursday, according to a testimony posted on the website of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Last year, Serbia's finance ministry said China's Huawei expressed interest in cooperating with Serbia on the development of a 5G network in the Balkan country.
"More than 30 nations contributed to the Prague Proposals to build secure 5G network infrastructure by not using vendors from authoritarian states like the Chinese Communist Party," Reeker said at an "Advancing U.S. engagement and countering China in the Indo-Pacific and Beyond" hearing held in the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
On September 4, Serbia's president Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo prime minister Avdullah Hoti signed a U.S.-brokered agreement for the normalisation of economic ties between Belgrade and Pristina, which includes a commitment of both parties to remove and prohibit the use of 5G equipment delivered by "untrusted vendors" in their communication networks.
Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday she discussed the agreement with Huawei representatives who expressed understanding that the agreement provides for the introduction of international standards for 5G networks and for the execution of a transparent tender for their development in Serbia.