US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Pak Chen that Washington is currently focused on removing the Chinese airship from US airspace.
In response to a question about the possible consequences of this incident for China, the foreign minister said: “Now for us the most important task is to oust this device from our airspace.”
Blinken reaffirmed his intention to keep in touch with Beijing and said, “We still believe that having open channels of communication is important and this incident confirms that and we will keep them going.”
Earlier, a Pentagon spokesman said that a reconnaissance balloon was seen over the territory of the United States, which flew from the Aleutian Islands through Canada and reached the US state of Montana.
“Our forces have located a reconnaissance balloon high above the United States mainland and have been tracking it for the past two days,” Ryder was quoted as saying by NBC.
“We are following this closely,” he added, noting that “immediately after the discovery of the balloon, the US authorities took steps to prevent the collection of confidential information.”
US Secretary of State told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the flight of a Chinese airship over US territory was “an irresponsible act that violates the sovereignty of the United States.”
The Pentagon confirmed that the airship was being monitored by the North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD, and the US military believes that the airship is Chinese, and the Department of Defense indicated that the airship was not shot down because it posed a risk of falling in populated areas.
The representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry explained that “the probe came from China and its purpose is of a civilian nature, especially since it is used for meteorological research.” control and deviated from the set course.
Source: TASS + RT
