May 21 (SeeNews) - Serbian telecommunications minister Rasim Ljajic has said the country plans to implement several contracts signed with Huawei despite the decision of Google to revoke the Chinese telecoms giant's Android licence, according to media reports.
"We do not want to become collateral damage in the conflicts of large telecommunications companies. This is a conflict between two giants," Radio Free Europe quoted Ljajic as saying on Monday.
Last month, Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei for the development of a smart city strategy through the positioning of Huawei as a strategic partner to cities like Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and others.
"By the end of next year, 750,000 households will be connected to the optical network, which is exactly the result of an agreement signed with Huawei, worth 150 million euro ($167.2 million)," Ljajic said.
The cooperation with Huawei holds no security threats to Serbia and for now there is no need to introduce any kind of restrictions to ensure Huawei is not going to hand over data to the Chinese state, he added.
On Sunday, Google restricted business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing. The Chinese technology giant has been under increasing pressure from the US government over fears that its equipment could be used to spy on American networks.
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