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Trump 'apoplectic' with Johnson on allowing Huawei in UK: Report

WION Web Team
LondonUpdated: Feb 07, 2020, 12:02 PM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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PM Johnson had told parliament that his government will 'do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the US'

Amid United Kindom's decision to allow China's Huwaei to have a "limited role" in the country's 5G network, US President called up UK PM Johnson a fortnight ago which the British media said the US president was "apoplectic" with Boris Johnson.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was earlier mildly critical of UK's decision to allow Huwaei to operate in the country. Pompeo had urged the UK government to rethink its decision to allow China's Huawei a role in the 5G networks.

"There is also a chance for the United Kingdom to relook at this as implementation moves forward," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said. Pompeo had cited national security reasons to persuade UK to disallow Huawei from operating in the country.

Pompeo had also pressed European allies to exclude Huwaei from various network across the continent after it allowed a "strict" rules to allow the Chinese telecom to operate.

"Our view is we should have Western systems with Western rules and American information should only pass across a trusted network. We'll make sure we do that," Pompeo had said earlier.

PM Johnson had told parliament that his government will "do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the US".

The White House, however, did not reveal the contents of the conversation between Trump and Johnson while the British PM's office said it had nothing to add apart from the fact that the two leaders had spoken on various issues including telecommunications.

In a guarded statement after the phone call, spokesperson at PM Johnson’s Downing Street office had said in a statement: "The Prime Minister underlined the importance of like-minded countries working together to diversify the market and break the dominance of a small number of companies."