Huawei official urges India to make ‘independent decision’ on excluding it from 5G

Huawei India CEO Chen Mingjie made the remarks while addressing the sixth India-China strategic economic dialogue that was attended by senior Indian and Chinese officials. He highlighted that 90% of the company’s 6,000 employees in India were locals and its work was with government enterprises.

Against the backdrop of US pressure to keep Huawei out of India’s 5G trials, a senior official of the Chinese telecom major said on Monday that New Delhi should make an “independent decision” on the basis of long-term benefits.

The US has called on India to keep Huawei out of its 5G trial over security concerns.(REUTERS PHOTO.)

Huawei India CEO Chen Mingjie made the remarks while addressing the sixth India-China strategic economic dialogue that was attended by senior Indian and Chinese officials. He highlighted that 90% of the company’s 6,000 employees in India were locals and its work was with government enterprises.

“We also hope that (the) Indian government will make independent decision on 5G for the long term benefit of India, irrespective of the country of origin,” Chen said, according to an English translation of his speech in Mandarin.

“We would like to give our commitment to (the) Indian government that we will continue to comply with all rules and regulations of India. In addition, we will also continue to positively cooperate with the Indian government, addressing cyber security and working together to improve network security beyond just providing leading technology and solutions,” he said.

Chen called on the Indian government to “treat all foreign investments fairly and justly, providing a level playing field to all investments”.

The US has called on India to keep Huawei out of its 5G trial over security concerns, people familiar with developments said. India is yet to make a formal announcement regarding the trials. Several ministries, including the home and external affairs ministries, have submitted their recommendations regarding the 5G trials.

Huawei, which has been in India for two decades, established its largest research centre outside China at Bengaluru and also has its biggest global service centre in India, Chen said. Its training centres in India have trained some 30,000 local engineers and its annual procurements from local firms is about USD 150 million, he said.

As part of its efforts to comply with Indian laws and regulations, Huawei has established a “compliance management system” and conducted external audits of its cyber security and operations compliance, he added.

Chinese officials have pressed for Huawei to be included in the proposed 5G trials during their interactions with their Indian counterparts.

China’s assistant commerce minister Li Chenggang, who also addressed the India-China Economic Cooperation Forum organised by CII, called on New Delhi to protect the legitimate rights of Chinese companies and to address problems faced by them.

He Lifeng, the Chinese minister in-charge of National Development and Reform Commission, said the two countries were victims of “trade bullying” and need to protect their interests and uphold the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation as its core.