Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Middle East

The Latest: NATO chief warns about China's 5G mobile deals

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • e2493ea5-
    Image 1 of 2

    NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talks to journalists during a press conference at the second day of a NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. NATO defense ministers are discussing the future of the alliance's operation in Afghanistan and how best to use its military presence to support political talks aimed at ending the conflict. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

  • e1850122-
    Image 2 of 2

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks at a news conference in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019. An American-led meeting on the Mideast in Warsaw, which started Wednesday, was initially pegged to focus entirely on Iran. However, the U.S. subsequently made it about the broader Middle East, to boost participation. Zarif on Wednesday predicted the Warsaw summit would not be productive for the U.S. "I believe it's dead on arrival or dead before arrival," he said. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

MUNICH – The Latest on Munich Security Conference (all times local):

6 p.m.

The head of NATO says there's growing concern about China's increasing investment in critical infrastructure systems in countries around the world and that alliance nations need to address it together.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a meeting of world leaders, top diplomats and defense officials on Friday that China's interest in the lucrative contracts to provide new superfast mobile networks called 5G is a cause for concern for many allies.

He says "we have to better understand the size and scale of China's influence, what it means for our security, and we have to address it together."

He spoke at the Munich Security Conference.

___

12:20 p.m.

A London-based think tank says last year's election in the German state of Bavaria was the subject of concerted social media campaigns designed to benefit a far-right party.

In a report Friday at the Munich Security Conference, researchers said they identified online tactics used by overlapping networks of German and international far-right activists to promote the Alternative for Germany party and smear its opponents.

The party, known by its acronym AfD, received 10.2 percent of the vote in the October election, sapping support from the governing Christian Social Union.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue's report found the election meddling wasn't driven by foreign countries, but rather by non-state networks of international far-right activists "using English language instruction manuals, meme banks and targeted trolling hit-lists."

___

11 a.m.

Iran's foreign minister says that even if Tehran decided to negotiate with the United States, he wouldn't trust that President Donald Trump would honor any deal the two nations made.

Mohammad Javad Zarif's comments in an interview to NBC's "Today" broadcast Friday came before an annual security conference in Munich that brings together more than 30 heads of state and government and 80 defense and foreign ministers.

Zarif said Iran spent years negotiating a nuclear agreement with the U.S. and other world powers, which exchanged sanctions relief for Tehran's pledge to rein in its nuclear program.

Trump pulled out of the deal and the U.S. re-imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran.

Zarif said Iran isn't interested in sitting down with Trump, saying: "Why should we negotiate? ... Why should we trust President Trump that he would abide by his own signature?"