Photo via CGTN

Germany has voiced opposition against the exclusion of Huawei from building the 5G network, as the country cannot currently build a 5G mobile network without the Chinese tech giant, AP news reported on Saturday.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Germany could enforce strict standards to protect itself from possible sabotage when introducing foreign technologies, but it cannot just ban it for a possibility.

"I'm against taking a product off the market just because there is a possibility that something might happen," Seehofer was quoted as saying.

He estimated that shutting out Chinese providers could delay building the new network by 5 to 10 years, the AP cited the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as reporting.

The U.S. has been trying to pressure its European allies to ban the Chinese telecom giant for alleged espionage risks. But UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said recently that the U.S. has to suggest an alternative if it wants to push the UK to exclude Huawei from its 5G network building.

Meanwhile, Britain's BT and Vodafone, Britain's two largest telecoms companies, are also considering urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson not to risk the rollout of next-generation mobile networks by banning China's Huawei, Reuters reported.

Vodafone, which uses Huawei's equipment in its radio network, has previously said a blanket ban on the Chinese company would cost millions of pounds and significantly slow down the rollout of 5G networks.

It paused the deployment of the company's equipment in its data-heavy core networks a year ago until Western governments give the company a full security clearance.

BT also uses Huawei's equipment in networks, but it is not deployed in the intelligent core of its fixed-line network, and it is removing it from the core of its mobile network.

(With input from Reuters)