The government will be convening a high-level meeting to decide on probing the India operations of China-based telecom equipment manufacturers like Huawei and ZTE, says news reports.
The move follows a report by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence against the China-based telecom vendors. According to the report there could be serious security ramifications following the use of telecom equipment manufactured by the China-based vendors in the country?s communications network.
Terming the issue sensitive, Arvind Mayaram, secretary, Economic Affairs has written to R Chandrashekhar, secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) suggesting that the matter should be brought before Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The proposed meeting will be attended by officials of Ministry of Finance and DoT. The high level meeting will examine the issue of possible security threats to the Indian communications network from the installed telecom equipment manufactured by foreign vendors. The government will also see if a probe needs to be initiated against foreign equipment manufacturers or if there is a need to keep a check on the expansion of China-based telecom equipment vendors in the country.
However, despite the row over possible security threats emerging from its telecom equipments, both ZTE and Huawei have reiterated that their telecom gear does not interfere with the internal security of any nation.
