Mr. Biden said he plans to hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. (file)
United States of america:
President Joe Biden said Thursday he would speak to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the wake of the US Air Force shooting down a high-tech Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.
“I look forward to speaking with President Xi and we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Biden said in his most extensive public remarks since the February 4 incident.
Emphasizing that the United States is “not looking for a new Cold War,” Biden said “I’m not sorry for taking down that balloon.”
“We will always work in the interests of the American people and to protect the American people,” Biden said.
The United States has been under threat ever since a giant white balloon tracking a series of top-secret nuclear weapons sites from China was shot down off the East Coast.
In the wake of the incident, the US military adjusted radar settings to detect smaller objects and immediately discovered three more unidentified craft, which Biden ordered shot down – one over Alaska, another over Canada and a third Michigan over Lake Huron.
China says the balloon was just a stray weather research craft, but US officials say they have strong evidence the balloon was sent for espionage.
The incident has sparked a diplomatic rift, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceling a rare visit to China. Beijing accuses Washington of overreacting and claims US balloons overflew Chinese territory, which the Biden administration denies.
Biden made a clear distinction between the Chinese balloon and the three smaller objects that were later shot down.
Biden denied Chinese involvement, saying, “We don’t yet know exactly what those three items were.”
“Nothing at this point appears to be related to China’s spy balloon program or … surveillance vehicles from any other countries,” Biden said.
“The current assessment of the intelligence community is that these three objects are most likely balloons associated with private companies” or research projects, he said.
However, “if an item presents a threat to the safety, security (of) the American people, I will remove it,” Biden said.
Biden has made it a priority to reset US ties with China, which he describes as Washington’s biggest competitor. Despite rising tensions over Chinese ambitions to restore rule over democratic Taiwan, Biden and Xi have said they want to install “guard rails” to prevent their superpower contest from turning into conflict.
The balloon drama has thrown that project into disarray.
However, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Wednesday that Beijing and Washington “have not stopped communicating and trying to understand each other.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
featured video of the day
Rana Daggubati’s blockbuster entry at the trailer launch of Rana Naidu