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Africa Union, Huawei sign agreement to deepen cooperation in ICT

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Huawei at the weekend disclosed that it signed a draft agreement to reinforce its cooperation with the African Union in a number of areas, including 5G communications that is at the heart of the Chinese telecom giant’s dispute with the United States.

Huawei Vice President for Northern Africa, Philippe Wang said that the draft agreement would also reinforce their cooperation in areas such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and high-speed networks.

Huawei, the world’s second smartphone maker has become embroiled in a dispute with the United States because of its leading role in developing equipment for next-generation 5G mobile phone networks.

The US government has warned that its equipment could serve as a Trojan horse for Chinese intelligence services, a claim Huawei has denied. Washington has urged its partners to shun the firm.

The US has also moved to block US companies from doing business with the firm, which has prompted China to warn it will create a blacklist of “unreliable” foreign companies.

Wang said, “This collaboration is witness to the continued confidence between the African Union and Huawei.”

He added that this accord should put a rest to “rumours that Huawei equipment leaked data, given that the AU conducted a complete audit of its IT system … and the conclusions rejected information that appeared in the press last year.”

In 2018, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that China had spied on the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, citing sources inside the organisation.

It reported that the spying began in 2012, after the completion of the AU’s new headquarters building that was financed by China.

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