Clean Network Results

U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach visited Tirana and met with President Ilir Meta and Prime Minister Edi Rama. The Under Secretary’s visit was marked by two important milestones in the relations between our countries. First, a Memorandum of Understanding on Economic Cooperation was signed by U.S. Under Secretary Krach and the Albanian Minister of Finance and Economy Anila Denaj. Afterward, Under Secretary Krach and Prime Minister Rama presided over the signing of the Skavica Hydropower project between the Albanian government and one of America’s best-known engineering and construction companies, Bechtel.

Excerpt of Krach’s remarks:
There’s a common recognition by government leaders and private sector CEOs—and this is all across the continent—and that is this threat to data privacy, intellectual property, and national security. This threat is brought on from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party.
Just as NATO and EU officials that I spoke with understand that the Transatlantic Alliance is only as strong as its weakest link.
The Clean Network and the Clean EU 5G Toolbox were developed exactly for that reason.
So far, more than 20 NATO and EU countries are part of the Clean Network, based on the EU 5G Toolbox, countries like the UK, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Greece, Estonia, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Slovakia, Denmark, and Latvia, among others, have chosen to include only trusted vendors in their 5G network infrastructure.
Now Germany, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain are reported to head that way.
In addition to the countries I just mentioned, some of the largest telecommunications companies around the globe are also becoming Clean Telcos. Telefonica, Orange, Reliance in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, and all three telcos in Japan, Luxembourg, Singapore, Canada, and the U.S. are rejecting doing business with these tools from the Chinese Communist state, Huawei, which serves as the backbone for that surveillance state.
Albania has joined the tide toward the Clean Network, and we are excited about continuing to expand our partnership in many areas of economic collaboration.