China's Huawei Has Now Signed A Deal To Develop 5G Network In Russia
The deal will see the development of 5G technologies in 2019-2020.
By Sadho Ram — 06 Jun 2019, 03:11 PM
On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow
On the sidelines of the two leaders' summit, Huawei, having been banned in the US, signed a deal with Russian telecoms company MTS to develop a 5G network in Russia.
In a statement, MTS said that deal will see "the development of 5G technologies and the pilot launch of fifth-generation (5G) networks" over the next year.
Quoted in the statement, Huawei's deputy chairman Guo Ping said he was "very happy" with the agreement "in an area of strategic importance like 5G".
The Chinese technology company is considered a security threat by the US. After being accused by President Donald Trump that it was spying for Beijing, it has now turned to Russia for business.
According to experts, the US decision to ban Huawei threatens the survival of the company, which is highly dependent on US chips for its smartphones.
While the said ban is to come into force within three months, Google suspended business operations with Huawei and revoked the telecom giant's license to Google's Android operating system (OS) and other services last month.
Huawei has assured its users that existing devices would not be affected by the ban.
Despite the ongoing trade ban with the US, Huawei has continued to gain tremendous support in Malaysia, with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad affirming that the country would "try to make use of [Huawei's] technology as much as possible."
The deal with Russian telecoms company MTS will ease Huawei's turmoil seeing how at the meeting between Putin and Xi, the Chinese leader called his Russian counterpart his "close friend"
President Xi noted that he and Putin had met nearly 30 times over the past six years.
According to a report in The Guardian, the current trip is Xi's eighth to Russia since 2012.
"We will strengthen our mutual support on key issues," Xi said, sitting next to Putin in an ornate Kremlin hall, as reported by The Guardian earlier today, 6 June.
