Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas that Germany could be cut off from crucial intelligence data in case it allowed Huawei to build it national telecoms network. It is not the first time the United States threatened Germany, and this warning issued on Friday seems to be almost identical with the one from March, when the U.S. started pressuring Germany.

Germany is, according to Pompeo, “a great, important partner and ally of the United States”, but so is the United Kingdom, which was not spared the pressures over Huawei in March 2019. Still, Britain, France and Germany are among the countries who have so far declined the U.S. call to ban Huawei.

(There is) a risk we will have to change our behavior in light of the fact that we can’t permit data on private citizens or data on national security to go across networks that we don’t have confidence (in) — Mike Pompeo

Pompeo also urged the United Kingdom again this month not to use Huawei technology in building networks. He mentioned “concerns it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying”, Reuters reports.