U.S. warns Brazil about Huawei and 5G in talks: senior U.S. official – Reuters
What happened: US officials warned their Brazilian counterparts on Monday about security concerns about using Huawei Technologies equipment during talks in Washington, Reuters reported, citing a senior American official. Brazilian officials took part in several meetings with US security experts on how Huawei equipment could undermine their country’s security, the US official told reporters. A Brazilian official said that Brazil did not want to get in between the United States and China on the Huawei dispute, and that there are no barriers for Huawei in Brazil at the moment.
Why it’s important: Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, will meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Known as the “Trump of the Tropics,” Bolsonaro embraces the US leader’s turbulent, Twitter-based style of governing. However, the new Brazilian administration is unlikely to back US efforts to ban Huawei completely from building the country’s 5G networks, echoing sentiments from other US allies including the UK, Germany, India, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates.