As is customary for commercial & #39;partnerships& #39; with EU presidencies (which have in the past been controversial in themselves), a call had been put out by the Slovenian government. Huawei missed the call but reached out directly for talks with the government in Ljubljana... 2/10
A meeting was then held between representatives of the Slovenian Government and Huawei to discuss the company& #39;s potential & #39;partnership& #39; with Slovenia& #39;s EU Presidency, which starts in July this year. 3/10
However, sources tell me that the company was informed of the & #39;conditions& #39; for application as a partner, and then decided not to follow up on their interests in supporting the Slovenian Presidency... 4/10
The partnership would have been disingenuous, to say the least, bearing in mind that just a few months ago, the Slovenian government signed a pact with the US that would effectively keep Huawei out from the country& #39;s 5G rollout...see @laurenscerulus 5/10 https://www.politico.eu/article/us-adds-slovenia-to-its-anti-huawei-friendship-group/">https://www.politico.eu/article/u...
But the Slovenian government would have had to contend with even more difficult questions, due to the Presidency& #39;s priorities for the second half of 2021, which are gradually becoming clearer. At the top of the list: resilience. A close second: cybersecurity. 6/10
I was informed by Slovenian sources that the Presidency will hone in on strengthening the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure in the event of a possible large-scale cyberattack & will also focus on the NIS Directive Review... 7/10
& just last week, the Slovenians gave a broader insight into this, as part of a joint letter from Foreign Minister @AnzeLog and Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva 8/10 https://www.gov.si/en/news/2021-04-19-joint-letter-of-slovenian-and-portuguese-foreign-ministers/">https://www.gov.si/en/news/2...
For the Slovenians, it& #39;s not farfetched to imagine the hypocrisy in partnering with a firm still under the cybersecurity spotlight as the Presidency plots a prioritization of cyber policy...9/10