Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has rejected threats from US Ambassador Richard Grenell. Grenell had announced that cooperation with the German secret service would be limited or even terminated - should Germany, the Chinese group Huawei participate in the expansion of the fast 5G mobile network. Merkel clearly rejected this.
Commenting on the US Ambassador's security concerns, the Chancellor said: "For the Federal Government, security is a great asset, especially in the expansion of the 5G network," Merkel said. "That's why we set our standards for ourselves."
Ambassador Grenell wrote in a letter to economics minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) that the exchange of intelligence and other data could no longer be up to date if Huawei were to be involved. The Wall Street Journal reported on the letter to Altmaier.
CDU members responded promptly to the threat. The foreign policy spokesman for the Union's parliamentary group, Jürgen Hardt, said: "We also have a clear view of our security interests in the new digital network - our goal is to build the safest and best network possible for Germany." Even more clearly formulated the Parliamentary Managing Director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Michael Grosse-Brömer: "This federal government needs no request or advice from the American ambassador to take security policy meaningful steps," he said.
The Chancellor had initially not responded to Grenell's threatening letter. But now she shows clear attitude. The Federal Government will talk about these issues with its partners both in Europe and with the relevant agencies in the US, said Merkel. "This is of course."
Merkel had recently expressed conditions for Huawei's involvement. It should be made clear that "when working in Germany, the Chinese state can not access all the data of all Chinese products," the Chancellor said at a student event in February. In general, China needs to find a way to secure intellectual property rights.
So far, EU governments have responded differently to the US call to exclude Huawei from 5G deployment for security reasons. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said after his meeting with Merkel that his government is currently investigating the operation.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) sees so far no concrete evidence for a suspected spy against the Chinese telecommunications giant. The German security authorities are playing, according to "Handelsblatt" but already measures against the Chinese telecommunications equipment. An exclusion in the network allocation should already have been considered.