Pompeo reassures Britain on US relations after Brexit

LONDON (AP) — United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the US and Britain would retain and enhance their special relationship once the UK leaves the European Union this week.

He also said that American unhappiness with the British decision to allow the Chinese tech company Huawei to play a role in the country’s high-speed wireless network would not affect broader ties.

As President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial neared a close in Washington, Pompeo met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to re-register American concerns about Huawei.

But he stressed that he expected they could be addressed as more details emerge on what limits will be placed on the company and with advances in communications technology.

Pompeo played down concerns that Huawei’s presence in Britain’s 5G network would severely disrupt intelligence sharing within the so-called “Five Eyes” partnership of English-speaking nations that includes the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“That relationship is deep. It is strong, it will remain,” Pompeo said at an event with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab before meeting Johnson.

“I am confident that as we work together to figure out how to implement this decision that we’ll work to get this right.”

“We were trying to make the case, as we made the case with every country in the world, that we think putting Huawei technology anywhere in your system is very, very difficult to mitigate and therefore not worth the gamble,” he said.

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