U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised concerns about Huawei equipment on Brazil’s 5G telecommunications network during a visit to Brazil last week, a White House official said Monday.
Juan González, Senior Director of the National Security Council responsible for the Western Hemisphere, also stated that the U.S. recently expressed concerns about Huawei equipment being used and stated that the U.S. opposes Brazil’s use of Huawei on a security basis.
According to Gonzales, “We continue to have concerns about Huawei’s potential role in Brazil’s telecom infrastructure” and with Huawei facing “major challenges” to its semiconductor supply chain, international customers will only be disappointed eventually.
He noted that while the U.S. expressed its concerns, Brazil made no commitments on whether or not it would use Huawei products.
Gonzalez then debunked the rumor that the U.S. had offered support for a NATO partnership with Brazil in exchange for cooperation in eliminating Huawei’s 5G equipment.
Gonzalez said the two issues were unrelated and there was no “quid pro quo” (give and take) concerning the two issues.
Huawei was placed on a U.S. export blacklist in 2019 and banned from accessing US-made critical technology, hampering its ability to develop its own chips and source components from outside vendors.
For more information, read the original story in Reuters.