As Ardern & Morrison meet, Germany set to follow UK in clearing Huawei

There has been yet another Huawei complication ahead of Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison's meeting in Auckland today - where topics are expected to include the Chinese telco giant's participation, or otherwise, in 5G mobile network upgrades.

Germany now looks poised to follow the UK in clearing Huawei.

Dow Jones reports that a recent probe by Germany's cybersecurity agency with help from the US and other allies failed to show that the Chinese company could use its equipment to clandestinely syphon off data, according to senior agency and other government officials.

An official at the Federal Office for Information Security, known as BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik), and two cybersecurity experts at the interior and foreign ministries said the probe in Germany and others among allies hadn't uncovered any indication of wrongdoing by Huawei, Dow Jones says.

On Monday, the FT broke the news that UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) assessment of Huawei, while still officially underway, will conclude that security concerns can be mitigated.

Two days later, NCSC boss Ciaran Martin gave a speech in Brussels in which he seemed to be preparing the ground for Huawei clearance.

Martin said his agency had raised serious questions about Huawei processes but added, "these problems are about standard of cyber security; they are not indicators of hostile activity by China."

And this morning news has come through that five Chinese ports have blocked Australian coal - a move Bloomberg has speculated could be retaliation for Australia's Huawei ban. As she meets with Morrison, Ardern could be wondering if NZ milk powder could be next.

At the same time, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country won't partner with or share information with countries that use systems made by Huawei.

Meanwhile, Ardern has emphasised that the GCSB's assessments of telco upgrades are project-based. There is no ban on Huawei or any company per se. The ball is in Spark and Huawei's court to come back with a 5G mobile network upgrade proposal that mitigates the GCSB's security concerns, the PM says.

Ardern and GCSB chief Andrew Hampton both maintain there was no Five Eyes pressure to block Huawei from Spark's 5G upgrade, and that the spy agency made its decision independently from the US - which has been pressuring allies to drop the Chinese company.