US says ‘no apologies’ to China over balloon downing, claims Russian jets over Alaska

US President Joe Biden says he plans to talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping following the shooting down of what Washington had claimed to be a Chinese “spy” balloon earlier this month, but he will “make no apologies” for the incident.

“We are not looking for a new cold war,” Biden said on Thursday in his most extensive remarks about the Chinese balloon and three unidentified objects downed by US fighter jets since February 4.

“I expect to be speaking with President Xi. I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,” he added, without providing any details about the time of their potential contact.

Stressing that Washington was continuing to engage diplomatically with Beijing on the issue, Biden said the US intelligence community was still trying to learn more about the three unidentified objects; one that was shot down over Alaska, one over Canada and a third that plunged into Lake Huron.

“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests they were related to the Chinese spy balloon program or they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” Biden said.

Underlining that the intelligence community believes the objects were “most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions,” Biden said they might have been spotted due to radar that was enhanced in response to the Chinese balloon.

Biden congratulates US military, with a trillion dollar budget, for shooting down Chinese 'spy' balloon

The Pentagon has said that a United States fighter aircraft downed a Chinese "spy" balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

On February 4, a US military fighter jet brought down a suspected Chinese “spy” balloon off the coast of South Carolina, fueling tensions between the arch-foes. The United States alleged the unmanned balloon was designed to detect and collect intelligence signals, but China said it was used for meteorological and other scientific purposes and had strayed into US airspace accidentally.

A day later, US military fighter jets shot down an octagonal flying object over Lake Huron, Canada, the Pentagon said, with many pointing the finger at China. Media reports said it was the fourth flying object to be shot down over North America by a US missile in a little more than a week.

The balloon incident deteriorated the already strained diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing, prompting a diplomatic rift as Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a rare visit to China.

Speaking at a news briefing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin once again referred to the downed balloon as an “unmanned civilian airship,” and said its flight into US airspace was an “isolated” incident.

The US “should be willing to meet China in the middle, manage differences and appropriately handle isolated, unexpected incidents to avoid misunderstandings and misjudgments, and promote the return of US-China relations to a healthy and stable development track,” Wang told reporters at the presser.

The US administration earlier claimed that the unidentified objects were shot down because they posed a “threat” to civil aviation.

Balloon incident further weakens relationship between US, China: Ex-Pentagon chief

Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper has said that the alleged Chinese “spy” balloon has further weakened ties between the United States and China.

Russian bombers intercepted near Alaska

In a separate development on Thursday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced that several Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets were intercepted by North American air defense forces as they had flown over international airspace near Alaska.

The joint US-Canadian center said in a statement that the aircraft, which were identified on Monday, did not enter US or Canadian airspace and did not pose a threat.

“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” the statement said, adding that such Russian activity “occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative.”

Stressing that the Russian flights were in no way related to the mysterious spate of airborne objects shot down by the US military over North America in the past few weeks, the statement said the United States also frequently carries out surveillance operations that do not enter other countries’ airspace and such flights are a common part of military operations.

Responding to the incident, Russia said on Wednesday that it had carried out several flights over international waters in recent days, including in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.

It said two of its Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers had flown over the Bering Sea accompanied by Su-30 jets, and that it had made similar “routine” flights north of Norway and over international waters near Russia’s far east.

Russia did not say whether its aircraft had been intercepted.

NATO member states have ramped up military exercises in the Arctic in recent years as Russia has expanded and renewed its military infrastructure in the region due to potential threats against its vast territory from the US-led military alliance, particularly after Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

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