US President Joe Biden addressed Americans for the first time since the United States shot down a Chinese balloon and three unidentified flying objects in the skies of North America on Thursday, February 16.
Joe Biden has said he plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, but will not apologize for bringing down a Chinese balloon that entered US airspace which Washington says was on a spy mission. “We don’t want a new Cold War” and “will continue to talk with China,” he said. “I hope I can speak with President Xi and get to the bottom of this matter, but I make no apologies for bringing down this balloon,” he added.
The destruction of the aircraft, which Beijing describes as a weather research balloon that inadvertently drifted into American airspace, sends “a clear message”, judged Joe Biden, that “any violation of our sovereignty is inadmissible”. “If a [flying] object poses a threat to the safety of Americans, I will shoot it down,” the US president said.
Uncertainty about the nature of the other three objects shot down
Joe Biden said that intelligence services were still seeking more information on three unidentified objects that flew over American territory and were shot down by American aircraft – one over Alaska, another over Canada and finally a third over Lake Huron at the US-Canada border. “We don’t yet know exactly what these objects were, but at this time there is no suggestion that they were related to China’s balloon spy program or any other country’s surveillance activities,” said the American president.
“These three objects are likely related to private companies, leisure activities or scientific research institutions”, said the American president. “We don’t have evidence that there’s been a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky,” he said, “but we’re seeing them more” due in part to a change in speed camera settings.
The president claims to have asked his administration to draw up a “better inventory” of flying objects in the American sky, and indicates that he has established a dialogue with the allies of the United States on the espionage program that China carries out according to him.
