As Reuters reports with reference to diplomatic circles, the US Secretary of State and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet in London one of these days to discuss issues related to the further development of the communication infrastructure of both countries. Pompeo and Johnson may also touch upon a free trade agreement that may be concluded between the countries after the United Kingdom leaves the EU. The UK’s refusal to cooperate with Huawei could be a kind of “advance” to ensure the success of negotiations on this agreement.

The US secretary of state, according to sources, will discuss with his British counterpart the concept of creating an alternative to Huawei equipment. It is known that the American authorities are hatching plans to gain control over European suppliers of telecommunications equipment – Ericsson and Nokia. In turn, the British side counts on the assistance of the Japanese companies NEC and Fujitsu in the development of national 5G networks. British operators were one-third dependent on Huawei’s equipment, so seven years should be enough to decommission it.

It is difficult to say which “alternative to Huawei” will mature in the course of negotiations in relation to the British telecommunications market. Growing new producers will require huge investments and will take a long time, it is unlikely that the US and UK authorities will want to stop the development of an entire industry in their countries for this. Perhaps the American partners will offer to organize the export of equipment from the United States to the UK if this does not hurt the interests of American telecom operators. Moreover, the looming free trade agreement between the countries will make such migration of goods beneficial for the British side.