The State Department has started working with international partners on adopting a set of 5G implementation principles that includes looking to push countries away from working with Chinese telecommunication firms, a department cyber official said Wednesday.

Rob Strayer, the lead official for State Department cyber efforts, told attendees at a CSIS event the U.S. must focus on building a broader ecosystem of partners beyond U.S. companies as 5G networks grow worldwide, specifically highlighting the work done by vendors in South Korea, Sweden and Finland.

“What we need is risk-based security approach to 5G networks. And as part of that, we need to look very closely at the supply chain,” Strayer said. “In particular, because 5G is going to put the vendor in a privileged position of being able to update those networks with the massive amounts of software that are going to be more and more a part of our telecommunications works and the applications that are going to ride on top of those, including for our critical infrastructure.”

Strayer said the U.S. and allies have to focus on working with “only the most trusted partners” when it comes to supplying patches and firmware for 5G networks, an argument he said is rooted in security rather than only trying to benefit homegrown vendors. 

“We’re not arguing our concerns about certain vendors because we’re trying to benefit an American company, in particular,” Strayer said. “There’s a great propaganda campaign out there to try to establish that there’s one company that is so far ahead of everybody else that there will be no way you could go with another set of technology other than that company.”

The State Department’s particular focus is on ensuring trusted vendors occupy the market space over China’s main telecommunications firms, Huawei and ZTE.

“We have reviewed the Chinese national intelligence law, and we’re very concerned about the ability of China to influence a vendor to take actions with respect to technologies that are not in the country’s interest but are being driven by the intelligence and security services in China,” Strayer said.

Strayer noted the State Department participated in an international conference in Prague this May where over over 30 countries derived a set of 20 principles for “fair, transparent” implementation of 5G technologies.  

“One [principle] in particular that is very important is talking about the legal system and the ability of a third party country to influence a particular vendor,” Strayer said. 

The European Union has also finalized its own set of 5G principles and tasked its member nations with assessing the security posture of their respective telecommunications networks. Recommendations from those assessments are due before the end of the year, according to Strayer.