Johnson says on Huawei: we must proceed carefully

People walk past an advertisement announcing the opening of a HUAWEI store in Beijing

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he would proceed carefully on making a decision on Huawei because the government did not want any critical infrastructure to be controlled by "potentially hostile state vendors".

"I don’t want to see our critical national infrastructure at risk of being in any way controlled by potentially hostile state vendors," Johnson told the Evening Standard when asked about the Chinese telecommunications giant's possible involvement in Britain's 5G network. "So we have to think very carefully about how to proceed now."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alistair Smout)