HUAWEI Technologies said Monday that it was confident of meeting the security requirements that Germany is setting for its fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks.

The upbeat comment, by Huawei’s Germany chief technology officer Werner Haas, comes as the country’s telecoms and cyber watchdogs hone security criteria that vendors such as Huawei will have to fulfill to gain certification.

Germany has just completed a 6.5 billion euro (US$7.4 billion) auction of 5G spectrum that can, for example, run “smart” factories, setting the stage for Huawei and rivals Ericsson and Nokia to vie for billions in deals.

“We expect there to be good and pragmatic [security] solutions — and we have no doubt that we will fulfill them,” Haas told reporters in Berlin.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted Huawei as part of a trade war with China, last month imposing export controls on the Shenzhen-based global networks market leader.

In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, the government and regulators have, after lengthy debate, spurned U.S. calls to banish Huawei on national security grounds.

Instead, they have set a level playing field for all foreign vendors, requiring them to meet key technical criteria — such as strong encryption of sensitive information, or whether a network is robust enough to withstand sabotage.

These technical criteria, sketched out in March, are still being refined. A further requirement for vendors to be deemed “trustworthy” to win certification is also under discussion.

Haas said Huawei, which has long-standing supplier relationships with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland, was already well known in Germany as a secure, safe and reliable partner.

He also pushed back against U.S. assertions that backdoors in networks were an issue. Instead, he said, it was vital for vendors and operators to make sure that the billions of devices and sensors that will be connected to the so-called Internet of Things are safe.

“Those are the greatest challenges,” said Haas.

Last week, Hungarian Innovation and Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovics said that Hungary had yet to receive any evidence that equipment from Huawei poses a security threat.

(SD-Agencies)