The Kingdom of Eswatini joined the alliance initiated by the United States against Huawei’s 5G network. The country thus becomes the first in Africa to distance itself from the Chinese giant. He is accused of being in the pay of the Beijing government and therefore dangerous for the security of future broadband networks.
The United States and the Kingdom of Eswatini, after expressing their respective interest in “developing a common approach to 5G network security and ensuring a safe, resilient and trustworthy 5G” In a joint statement issued on Friday, January 15, 2021, they announced their desire to strengthen collaboration on this mobile technology.
For its part, Eswatini states that 5G will allow for a wide range of new applications. Thus, protecting these next-generation communication networks from disruption or manipulation and ensuring privacy and individual freedoms is vital to ensuring that Eswatinians can take advantage of the economic opportunities that 5G will offer.
The US-initiated coalition was created on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on 15 February 2020 in Germany. US Defense Minister Mark Esper warned Europe against Huawei. By allowing the Chinese telecom supplier to build the 5G networks, they risk, according to him, “threatening” NATO. “If we don’t understand the threat and react, it could ultimately threaten what is the most successful military alliance in history, NATO,” he said. Since then, Germany, the United Kingdom and France have joined the alliance.
Unlike the United States and some European countries, the BRICS are ready to entrust the installation of the 5G to the Chinese giant.Huawei thus benefits from the benefits of political rapprochement between China and emerging powers. Indeed, at the end of December 2020, India authorised all market players (including Huawei) to participate in the first 5G experiments. Even if the Indian telecom operators have not yet bought the 5G frequencies needed to transmit the signal, nor have they chosen their suppliers, this green light in principle is a breath of fresh air for the Chinese group, the world leader in telecom equipment.
Even though Brazil has launched an audit on the security risks posed by 5G, it does not want to hear about a veto. Huawei is already well established in Brazil. The group works with many companies and universities, so it’s a closed topic,” Brazil’s vice-president Hamilton Mourão recently ruled.
In Europe, Huawei has already signed a partnership with MTS to launch pilot 5G networks in Russia.
