EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania, Technology, Telecomunications

Huawei's comment came after Telia Lietuva CEO Dan Stromberg told BNS in an interview that "the reason why we are taking out Huawei is the geopolitical situation". 

"For the last ten years, we have closely cooperated with our partner Telia in implementing high-quality, secure digital infrastructure in Lithuania," Ricky Chen, the head of Huawei for the Baltic countries, told BNS.   

"Therefore, we are sorry that business decisions are so heavily influenced by political pressure," he said. 

Chen said he hopes that in the future, commercial activity "will not be restricted by geopolitical beliefs" and there will be a level playing field for all suppliers. "Such a step would be beneficial both for the digitization of Lithuania and for the whole community," he said. 

In early November, Telia announced it had partnered with Sweden's Ericsson to modernize its mobile network and roll out 5G services. 

Telia currently uses Huawei’s equipment in its mobile RAN network and its strategic partnership with Ericsson means that the telecoms company will phase out the Chinese supplier's equipment in Lithuania starting next year.

The United States has been pressing its European partners not to use Huawei's equipment.

In a joint declaration signed by Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this year, the Lithuanian and US governments agreed "to undertake a careful, balanced evaluation of 5G hardware and software suppliers and supply chains to promote a secure and resilient 5G architecture".

Huawei was not named in the document, however. 

Lithuania's military intelligence has said Huawei's involvement in the development of the 5G wireless network infrastructure poises a security risk due to Communist China's laws requiring that companies share information with the government.