Quad nations to discuss secure digital connectivity in Indo-Pacific region

Notwithstanding its dilemma over keeping Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation of China away from the 5G telecom network in India, New Delhi may next week join the United States, Japan and Australia to call for secure digital connectivity in the Indo-Pacific region.

The need to ensure the security of the digital connectivity network is going to be on the agenda of the meeting of the foreign ministers of the ‘Quad’, an informal coalition of India, Japan, Australia and the US, in Tokyo on Tuesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent New Delhi in the meeting with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Foreign Ministers of Japan and Australia, Toshimitsu Motegi and Maris Payne. The US is keen to use the meeting to call for building secure networks to enhance digital connectivity in the Indo-Pacific without the involvement of Chinese telecom companies.

In the wake of the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, New Delhi had banned the use of several apps linked to companies based in the communist country. But the Narendra Modi government last month informed Parliament that it had no plans to keep Huawei and ZTE Corporation out of the 5G rollout in India.

“We are mostly focused on the overall principle of establishing and protecting a strong digital economy worldwide and that can benefit from the promise of 5G, but I guess that the protection of 2G and 3G legacy systems would also be consistent with that,” a senior official of the US State Department said, ahead of the second ministerial meeting of the Quad.

The official said the countries needed to be able to trust that the equipment and software used in the telecom networks would not pose any threat to national security, economic security, the privacy of citizens, intellectual property and human rights.

“And when you look at companies like Huawei and ZTE, People’s Republic of China (PRC) companies where PRC laws can force these companies to grant the Government of China the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure or to intercept secure transmissions or to acquire sensitive technology data, that’s a real national security vulnerability,” said the US official, adding, “It is a vulnerability for populations, for economies, and national security.”

Notwithstanding pressure from the US to exclude the companies based in China, the Modi government had on December 30 last year announced its decision to let all network equipment makers, including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd., to participate in the 5G trial.

“So we’ve been working with India and everybody but especially India – to adopt a risk-based security framework for – both for the construction of new 5G networks, and I guess to protect legacy systems as well, in order to keep those untrusted vendors out of their networks,” said the US official.

President Donald Trump’s administration in August 2018 banned Huawei’s products in the United States market citing security concerns, particularly the possibility of China using its telecom equipment company for surveillance and espionage activities in America. So did the two other Quad members, Japan and Australia.