Nato Secretary General welcomes Britain’s rejection of Huawei as alliance reaches out to Australia 

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's Secretary General, in his office at Nato HQ, Brussels. 

Credit: NIDS/NATO Multimedia Library/NATO

Britain’s rejection of Huawei’s 5G infrastructure was needed to ensure “secure and reliable systems”, the head of Nato has said.

Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed Britain’s decision to remove all Huawei technology from Britain’s 5G networks by 2027.

The Secretary General said: “Nato is not pointed at any particular nation or company, but we have to have guidelines that we expect all allies to meet. 

“That includes understanding the consequences of foreign ownership and control of Britain’s telecommunications.

“I welcome the fact that allies are now imposing more strict policies on 5G. We have to have secure and reliable systems.”

Speaking exclusively to the Telegraph Mr Stoltenberg said Nato does not regard China as an enemy but must respond to the security consequences of the nation’s rise. 

“China now has the second largest defence budget in the world. They are leading in several disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence and autonomous systems,” he said.

“This matters for Nato and we have to be able to respond to threats from any direction.”

Highlighting the treatment of Uyghur minorities and the “cracking down on democratic forces in their own country”, Mr Stoltenberg said he had experienced aggressive Chinese behaviour personally when Prime Minister of Norway. 

Having awarded the 2010 Nobel peace prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Norway was hit with “heavy economic sanctions”.

“This is a way of trying to intimidate other countries which is contradicting our values, global institutions and the rule of law.”

One way of responding to an increasingly muscular China is to work closer with partners in the Asia-Pacific region, Mr Stoltenberg said.

He hinted membership by nations such as Australia, a country he has visited in his capacity as Nato head, could be possible under future plans for the alliance.

“Nato will remain a regional organisation…but we need a global approach to security challenges. The rise of China is also a challenge [and] Nato needs a global approach, while we remain a regional alliance.”

“The time has come for a new strategic concept for Nato. Part of that will be to work with partners including Australia.”

The Secretary General said the 30-nation alliance also needed to maintain strong conventional military capabilities in order to deter Russia. 

Because Nato is strong conventionally Moscow is forced to use cyber and other hybrid threats below the threshold of armed conflict. Nato should not bolster these defences to the detriment of hard power, Mr Stoltenberg said.

“The answer is not to weaken Nato’s conventional capabilities. We need to be strong in all domains and provide a credible deterrence,” he said. “That’s exactly what we are doing.”

“We are implementing the biggest reinforcement of Nato for decades.

“We have responded with a wide range of measures to be able to deal with Russia when they behave [as they did] in Crimea or in Salisbury.” 

Mr Stoltenberg pointed to the British battlegroup in Estonia as part of the alliance’s Enhanced Forward Presence as an example of Nato resolve. 

He said the Nato units in the Baltic states would have to “stay as long as necessary” to deter Russian aggression.

“If tensions decrease and the security environment improves…that may change the Nato posture.”