“I am confident that there will be a cost-effective deliverables from Western trusted vendors that can deliver the same services, or better services, at comparative cost,” Pompeo said during an Atlantic Council event.

In what some observers have compared to the Cold War arms race, the US is worried 5G dominance would give China an advantage Washington is not ready to accept.

With US-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington has been pushing governments around the world to squeeze out Huawei Technologies Co, arguing that the firm would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying.

Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, denies it spies for Beijing and says the US is trying to smear it because Western firms are falling behind in 5G technology.

Pompeo said countries had come to recognise the costs of putting “untrusted” vendors in their systems.

“Over time, I think the world will come to recognise that’s not the right path and you will see Western technologies that are verifiable, trustworthy and transparent come to dominate the telecommunications markets,” he said.

5G, which will offer much faster data speeds and become the foundation of many industries and networks, is seen as one of the biggest innovations since the birth of the internet itself a generation ago.