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The Chinese telecommunications giant “Huawei”, which surpassed “Apple” and “Samsung”, stood out in first place in the number of smartphones sold, and which shook the West with the launch of the fifth generation of mobile networks, in Serbia in just three years. the path from a “key” partner to an “untrusted” partner.
With the signing of the agreement in Washington, which states that “both parties are obliged to ban 5G equipment supplied by an unreliable provider in their mobile communications networks and, when it already exists, eliminate them”, Serbia effectively intervened in the technological war between USA and China. Although the company’s name is not mentioned anywhere, it is clear that it is targeting “Huawei,” which the United States has imposed sanctions on for close ties to the Chinese government and accusations of espionage.
Given that Serbia does not yet have a 5G network and only one of our mobile operators used equipment from a Chinese manufacturer to test the new network, this point of the Washington Agreement may not be as controversial, but the question is how and if it will affect cooperation. with “Huawei” in other areas It remains to be seen whether the memorandum whereby Serbia became part of the “digital silk road” within the “Belt and Road” initiative will become a dead letter on paper.
The announcement of this Chinese company, which invests 15 billion dollars in development annually, about the opening of a development center for Southeast Europe in Belgrade, testifies that grandiose plans have been made with “Huawei” in the last three years . In addition, it has a contract with the Ministry of the Interior for the installation of 1,000 cameras in 800 locations in Belgrade. According to the media, about 45 million euros have been invested in the video surveillance project from 2017 to the present.
The Ministry of Commerce, Tourism and Telecommunications has signed memoranda on strategic partnership for the development of broadband Internet and the development of “smart cities”, that is, the digitization of various services in Nis, Belgrade and Novi Sad, and the Ministry Education has signed a strategic partnership agreement for development. Information and communication infrastructure in educational institutions.
In March, the “Data Center” in Kragujevac was opened, which was realized in cooperation with “Huawei”. The Office of IT and E-Government signed a memorandum with “Huawei” on the establishment of a national platform for the development of artificial intelligence, which is part of a Chinese donation worth 13 million euros.
The interlocutor of “Politika”, informed about the events in the telecommunications market, who for justified reasons did not want his name to be mentioned, believes that the 5G network is a much smaller problem of the Washington Agreement, because simply nobody has it still. He believes that the Serbian delegation was guided by that logic when it signed the agreement seven days ago, and does not rule out the possibility of consulting with Chinese partners before leaving for Washington, since this agreement was drawn up several months ago.
– If it is estimated that, for example, “Huawei” is not safe enough for the 5G network, the question arises whether they are safe for anything else. It is the same company, they are the same employees, they have the same contracts, they have the same corporate procedures and everything comes out of the same kitchen. The question is why would they be good for anything else if they are not good for 5G. We see that “Huawei” has gone deep into Serbia. The entire “Telekom” network is on “Huawei” equipment, complete optics, smart cameras, a platform for artificial intelligence is being hired. For all this, I doubt that this point of the agreement will be fulfilled. This appears to have been aimed at the Donald Trump campaign rather than being further elaborated and implemented. And if he does not win the elections, the question is how much the next administration will pressure him – says the interlocutor from “Politika”.
He believes that everything is politicized because there is no independent body that objectively verifies if the systems and equipment of the 5G network are safe. Our interlocutor remembers that Great Britain put “Huawei” on the blacklist, but there is a committee formed by the government and, as they had objections to the protocols of the Chinese equipment manufacturer, it was evaluated as unsafe and the import of their equipment was prohibited. for the 5G network. .
– It is a pity that, if some western manufacturers of equipment and software went through that filter of controls, they would have a very bad time. This belongs to the domain of information security, and our country, if it really wants to verify it, would already have to form a body to deal with it – says our interlocutor.
Goran Radosavljevic, a professor at the FEFA faculty, says that if the Washington agreement is finalized, it will undoubtedly affect other agreements that Serbian companies and the Serbian government have with “Huawei.”
– We know that this refers to “Huawei” and ZTE, Chinese equipment manufacturers. It is problematic that there is a clause in the agreement according to which everything that has been installed so far will have to be removed. We don’t know what those contracts with “Huawei” are, but there is probably a clause that they cannot be terminated so easily. Then a serious arbitration awaits us with that company. Generally, the termination of a cooperation also means the termination of the cooperation in other projects. Most of the time, they are related contracts, explains Radosavljevic.
Radosavljevic recalls that the Chinese have big problems with the development of their companies in Europe. They knocked on a lot of doors, he says, and so he doesn’t think this will affect other Chinese investments in Serbia.
– So far, we have not heard China’s reaction to the agreement with the United States. However, they are a bit more careful when it comes to such things. China has a geopolitical strategy and big plans in this region, and they won’t give up easily. I believe that this will not jeopardize the political relations between Serbia and China, and we should not expect them to be angry with us now, because cooperation with this region is in China’s political interest. China and the United States are fighting for this part of the world, for the location of assets and geopolitical importance, and this is just the beginning, says Radosavljevic.
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