U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Czechia at the start of a five-day visit to Central Europe, where China's role in 5G network construction will dominate his agenda.

Pompeo is expected to campaign for countries to shun Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The top U.S. diplomat has said his visit to Poland, Czechia, Austria and Slovenia will be "very important and productive."

That's because he's hoping to persuade countries to avoid Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The UK has already moved to bring in a future ban on Huawei's involvement in its 5G network, after months of lobbying by the U.S. government.

On Tuesday, Pompeo met with his Czech counterpart Tomas Petricek for a trip to Plzen to pay tribute to U.S. troops that liberated the western Czech city in 1945.

That was followed by hour-long talks in which it was expected discussions would include nuclear energy cooperation and how European countries can reduce their energy dependence on Russia.

On Wednesday, Pompeo is set to meet Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, deliver a speech in the Czech Senate and meet with the country's pro-Russia and pro-China president, Miloš Zeman.

The next day, Pompeo will travel to Slovenia, where he is due to sign a bilateral agreement on 5G security.

He will then travel to Austria to meet Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for talks on U.S.-Austrian trade and Austria's involvement in peacekeeping missions worldwide.

Later in the week, Pompeo will meet with a good friend, Polish President Andrzej Duda, who was recently narrowly re-elected after a highly polarizing campaign, during which U.S. President Donald Trump hosted him at the White House.

There, Pompeo will discuss the redeployment to Poland of 1,000 U.S. troops who were pulled from Germany.