US President Joe Biden said there is no indication yet that the air targets shot down over North American airspace in recent weeks are linked to China’s spy balloon program.
He stated this in a special statement on Thursday, writes “European truth“.
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that the three objects were most likely balloons associated with private companies, recreational or research institutions that study the weather or conduct other scientific research,” Biden said.
“Nothing so far indicates that they were connected to the Chinese spy balloon program, or that they were surveillance vehicles from another – any other country,” he added.
Biden said he ordered the military to shoot down the three unidentified objects because of their danger to commercial air traffic and because the military could not rule out the risk of surveillance of sensitive objects.
Biden said he personally spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after one of the objects was shot down over Canada.
The President of the United States stressed that there is no evidence of a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky.
“Now we’re just seeing more of them, partly because of the steps we’ve taken to increase the capabilities of our radars,” he said.
Biden also said he plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the future.
“We are looking for competition, not conflict with China. We are not looking for a new Cold War. But I make no apologies and we will compete,” Biden said.
Biden said the recent incidents highlight the importance of “maintaining open lines of communication between our diplomats and military professionals.”
Recall that over the territory of North America recently shot down four objects, only one of which was clearly identified as a balloon. American experts fished out of the ocean part of the wreckage of the equipment that was on it, and are examining them.
China tried to convince that the balloon had gone astray and accused the US of overreacting, and later Beijing said that it had allegedly fixed over its own territory since the beginning of 2022 more than a dozen such devices from the USA. The White House denied these allegations.
