China’s Huawei signs deal to develop 5G network in Russia

Huawei, the Chinese technology company considered a security threat by the US, has signed a deal with Russian telecoms company MTS to develop a 5G network in the country over the next year.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The deal will see “the development of 5G technologies and the pilot launch of fifth-generation networks in 2019-2020”, MTS said in a statement on Wednesday.

Quoted in the statement, Huawei’s Guo Ping, one of the company’s chairmen on rotation, said he was “very happy” with the agreement “in an area of strategic importance like 5G”.

“We will strengthen our mutual support on key issues,” Xi said, sitting next to Putin in an ornate Kremlin hall.

“Protectionism and unilateral approaches are on the rise, and a policy of force and hegemonism is increasingly taking hold,” Xi said.